Wonders of Science
by packleader96
Summary: After a terrible lab accident, a young human scientist is sent to the magical land of Equestria, how will he react to a world filled with wonder, beauty, and danger. Rated T for Language, Violence, and some Sexuality.
1. Prologue

**A/N: here it is, my first ever, human in equestria story, I'm new to this type of story writing, but I should expand my skill, and take a shot at this type of story, so please, go a little easy on me.**

**Wonders of Science: prologue**

The year was 2017, and the human race had seen much change in the past few years.

War was diminished, world hunger had been reduced, many political disagreements were settled, and science had advanced greatly, to a point, mankind felt it was time to share their knowledge, with other worlds.

(United States eastern coast, skies over Washington D.C.)

A large military plane approached the capital city, at a fast rate, two fighter planes flew next to it, and making sure it stayed safe.

A young scientist, sat looking out the window at the city below, a solemn look on his face, he watched as another man sat across from him, a happy look on his face, "come on Nathan, relax a little, have some wine" his friend said with a smile, the young man just looked at him with a small smile, "drake, you know I don't drink much" he said, fully turning to face him, his friend took a big drink from his cup.

"true, but it's time to celebrate, we've made a exciting discovery, and we owe it all to you" he said pouring another glass, "we don't even know if the machine will work, it hasn't been fully tested, especially on a human test subject, I just cant shake this feeling, but I cant explain it" he said looking out the window, he friend just laughed and took a large drink.

"You worry too much, you need to relax more" he said in a slurry voice, Nathan could already tell, the alcohol was taking it's effect, just as he did, an older man walked in the room, wearing a military uniform, highly decorated with medals of all sorts.

"Professor Edwards, I suggest you stop drinking, we'll be landing soon, you'll want to be as sober as possible, you are briefing the president himself, on your discoveries, you should be much honored, and this is the greatest scientific discovery, since we landed on the moon, at least" he said as he took a seat next to Nathan.

Nathan turned and looked at him, "with all due respect general, you're not making the situation any better" he said as the plane grew closer and closer to the ground.

After a few minutes, the plane landed safely on the ground, and slowly pulled into a hangar, when the plane came to a complete stop, the door on the side, opened up and they both stepped out, they looked in front of them, and saw a large limousine, with two military vehicles, in the front and the back, they saw as a group of people stepped out from the limousine, and gestured for them to enter.

Nathan looked at their uniforms, and saw that they were part of the CIA, they all slowly got in, and the car made its way out of the airport, its destination was the pentagon.

The entire time there, the general was briefing them on what to say, they needed to act professionally, even drake, who was partially under the influence of the alcohol, was told to be there, luckily it was going to be Nathan, who was going to be doing most of the talking, and he was growing more and more nervous as the car approached the pentagon.

After they made it through the various checkpoints, they pulled up, after they all got out, they made their way inside the building, and like they did, they began walking down the hall, going through doorway's, guarded by the secret service.

Soon they began going down various flights of stairs, Nathan noticed more and more CIA and secret service operatives, and soon after walking for a while they came to their destination, a large room, with screens all around, and a large table in middle, he looked to the left and saw a group of people standing there, from what he saw, they were all older gentleman, the general stopped them, and cleared his throat, catching their attention.

"Mr. President" the general said, one of the older gentleman smiled and walked up to him, he was an older gentleman, his hair was mostly black, but had gray strands in it, the general gave his best salute, Nathan could feel sweat running down his forehead, "may I introduce, professor Richards and professor Edwards, two of the leading scientists on the dimensional warp project" he said as the president walked up to Nathan, "gentlemen, it's good to finally meet you, I've heard so much about your work, it's really amazing" he said extending out his hand to Nathan.

Nathan took a deep breath, and shook his, "it's an honor, Mr. President" he said, the president gestured for them to sit down, and they followed him to the table, Nathan taking the seat closest to the president, the president sat down and turned to Nathan.

"Tell me professor, what is the purpose of this machine, what will it achieve?" he asked with a curious look, Nathan looked at his friend and than back to the president, "well, as you know, for the past few years, scientists have been trying to open doorway's to other dimension's but failed, we think, that this machine is different, if it is calibrated right, it could, open a doorway to another world, not in our galaxy" he said trying to explain it, as best as he could.

While it seemed that the president was following what he was saying, the look on his face, told Nathan that he still had many questions, "is there any way we can tell, where it is we might discover, or what the inhabitants of this world might be?" he asked, Nathan looked at his friend again and sighed.

"that's part of our problem, we have no idea where we might end up, or what the inhabitants might be, they could be a civilization as advanced as ours, or simply a world with single-cell organisms, the possibilities are endless" he said with a calm look on his face, the president turned and looked at the general, "what measures are being taken, if the natives of this world are hostile?" he said, the general sighed, "I can assure you, Mr. president, all precautionary measures are being made" he said with a serious look, the president then turned back to Nathan, "I understand Mr. Richards, that you have volunteered to be the first test subject, what are the possible effects on living human tissue?" he asked looking at him with a serious look.

Nathan just sighed, and looked back at the president, "it's true sir, I have volunteered, but we are not sure what might happen to the human body, if it goes through the machine, in the early stages of the testing, before the machine was built, plant and animal cells, seemed unimpaired by the radiation, but we have yet to test it on human flesh" he said with a hint of worry in his eyes.

The president sighed and stood up, "well I hope you succeed, and on behalf of the people of this nation, I wish you luck, make us proud" he said with a smile, Nathan stood up and smiled, shaking his hand, but even in the back of his head, he had the faintest feeling that it would go very wrong, but only time would tell.

**A/N: well there you have it, the first chapter, and feel free to review and tell me what you think, see you guys then.**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: well you guys asked, so here it is, the second chapter for this story, I happy to know that you all enjoy the story, hope you enjoy this next chapter, because now it gets interesting.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 1: saying goodbye**

After meeting with the President himself, Nathan and his friend Drake, had returned to their lab, where the final experiment was going to take place, in a secret lab, in the middle of the Nevada desert.

Nathan paced back and forth, in front of the console, the other scientists, operating it, checking the energy wavelengths, and calibrating the exact calculations he laid out, with each passing second, his heart beat grew quicker and quicker, he was about to be a part of the greatest scientific discovery, since the landing on the moon, being nervous was acceptable.

Just as he continued pacing, one of the scientists turned in his chair to face him, "what's the progress?" he asked, the scientist smiled at him, "we are almost done, setting your calculations, it will be ready soon" he said, just as Drake walked up to him, with a stern look on his face.

"Nathan, your family is here, there up in the main lobby, the general sent me to get you" he said, Nathan turned to his friend; he took a deep shaky breath, and followed him to the main elevator that would take them to the lobby.

The elevator ride seemed to take forever, but eventually, they stopped and the door slid open, and they walked out and made their way to the lobby, the lobby was a large room, with people running all over, but Nathan, had his eyes fixed in front of him, there stood the general, talking with a group of people, that Nathan recognized, the general saw them standing there, and he walked towards them, and up to Nathan, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I know this might be a little hard for you, but we must get underway, make it quick" he said as he walked past him, and Nathan began walking up to them, he came closer and walked up to the older lady and gentleman.

He took a deep breath and stood in front of them, he was just as tall as the older gentleman, they both had large smiles on their faces, and tears in their eyes, "today's the big day, you nervous son?" the older gentleman said, Nathan smiled and let out a slight chuckle, "you have no idea dad" he said, he looked towards his mom, and saw that she had tears running down her cheeks, he turned to her and smiled, "everything's going to be fine, if this works, it will change our lives for the best, I'll make you both proud" he said the last part, turning to both of them.

She began to weep louder, "I know it will be, but after what happened to James, I can't stand to lose another son, all we have left is you and Jake" she said as more tears poured down her cheeks, he looked down for a second with a sad look, when she mentioned his brother, it was a painful day, when they learned of his death, but he pushed the thought out of his head, and tried his best to smile at her.

"Mom, I promise, I will come back, I won't let you down" he said giving them both a big hug, "I hope you do, who else who will I annoy" said the other gentle man, Nathan turned and looked at the other one, his older brother Jake, he smiled at him.

"you wish, if this goes how I planned, I would probably be the most famous scientist there is, and you will have to show me some respect" he said with a chuckle, his older brother smiled, "fat chance, you may be the famous scientist, but your still my little brother, I just wish that Jimmy was here to see this, I'm sure he is just as proud of you as we all are" he said as a single tear fell down his cheek, Nathan just nodded, and extended out his hand, the other just looked at him, with a sad smile and did something unexpected.

He reached out, and pulled his younger brother into a hug, catching Nathan of guard, but he smiled and returned it, soon they separated and looked at each other, "take care little bro, and don't get yourself into any trouble, I won't be there to get you out of it" he said, with a smile.

Nathan smiled back, and turned to the final person in the group, a young female, about his age, with dark brown hair, and a light shade of brown in her eyes, she looked up at him, with a sad smile, he reached down and took her hands in his, and brought them up to his lips, and lightly kissed them, he looked at her and saw a single tear falling down her face, he smiled and wiped it away.

"I know what you're thinking, but it will be alright, I will come back, whatever others might say, I will come back to be with you, and then I will give you the wedding you've always dreamed of, this will change our lives forever" he said as he stroked her cheek, with his hand, she took a hold of his hand, as another tear fell down her cheek, revealing a hand with a beautiful diamond ring on it, he smiled at her and kissed her cheek.

"The only thing I care about is you coming home, but be careful, and make all of us proud, I know you can do it, I have faith in you, and I love you, more than anything else" she said with a smile, he smiled back at her, and leaned down.

Their lips met in a passionate kiss, one that very might be their last, and they tried to savor it, but Nathan knew he had to go, and they separated, their foreheads touching, they opened their eyes and stared at each other, they smiled as Nathan began to back away, as they all huddled together for one last hug, before he departed.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, before he had to go, he backed away slowly, and turned to walk away, he felt a tear in his eye, and felt it run down his cheek, as he walked back up to the general and Drake, and wiped the tear away.

"okay, I'm ready, let's make history" he said trying his best to smile, they smiled at him and turned and walked away, but not before taking another look at his family, and sighed before following after them, and back into the elevator.

The door closed behind them, and the elevator descended into the lower levels.

**A/N: well there you have it, just so you know; this has no relation to the series, so flame and the others will not be in it, just thought to avoid any confusion, before it happens, anyway, hope you enjoyed, there will be more to come, soon.**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: here it is, the next chapter, now is when things get really interesting, hope you all enjoy, and thank you for the support.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 2: the incident**

After leaving the lobby, they arrived in the underground laboratory, and the general asked Nathan to follow him, and he lead him to the upper floor, where the main computer console was, there he saw a group of soldiers, with two large duffle bags, at their sides.

They walked up to him, and the general turned around to face him, "we packed all the essentials you would ever need, there a few weeks of food and clothing in there…as well as ammo" he said pulling out an average 9mm handgun, and handing it to Nathan.

"What's this for?" he asked taking it and examining it, the general gave a small smile, "like the President said, the natives of this land, if they are intelligent, might be hostile, you'll need to defend yourself, now you do know which end the bullets come out of, right?" he said, Nathan let out a small chuckle.

"General, I may be a scientist, but I have fired a gun before, I know a lot about them, my dad taught me, when I was younger" he said pulling out the clip, and saw that it was fully loaded, he slid it back in, and placed it in one of the duffle bags, just as he did, Drake walked up to them, with a serious look on his face, "general, it's ready" he said with a calm voice.

The general took a deep breath, and turned to Nathan, "okay, all the equipment you might need is in these duffle bags, it's time to suit up" he said as they both walked away.

(Later…)

After he got suited up, Nathan walked out on to, the main testing platform, dressed in a outfit, that closely resembles that of a hazard suit, he took a step closer to the large machine, and approached the testing chamber.

Drake and the general stood up in the main console room, watching him approach the chamber, both of them shaking in excitement, "this day will change everything, it will open new doors in scientific development" he said as he turned towards Drake, and smiled at him.

"Start it up" he said, Drake looked at the scientists operating the main console, "open the chamber doors" he said, and they began pressing buttons.

Nathan stood in front of the chamber door, even inside his suit, he was sweating all over, he heard a light hissing sound, as the locks on the chamber became undone, he slowly reached up and pulled them open, for a moment he just stood there staring inside the chamber, he turned around and looked up at the console room, although it was shaded, he could see the silhouettes, of the scientists in the room.

He raised his hand up, and signaled that it was okay, trying his best to smile, he turned and calmly walked inside the chamber, it was fully made of glass, so the test could be observed, luckily, it was made of the strongest glass materials, in the world, so nothing could break through.

He walked to the middle of the chamber, and stood there, looking out at the scientists all around him.

Drake and the general watched from above, "alright, close the chamber and lock it behind him" he said, in a calm voice, but the general could tell that he was, panicked beyond belief.

Nathan heard the loud hissing, and the locks sealing behind him, all he could do was wait, until they started up the machine, and it felt like the slowest process in his life.

Drake turned to the general, the general simply smiled, "let's make history, start the machine" he said, Drake took a deep shaky breath, and told the other scientists what to do, they started pressing buttons, and pulling switches, and turning dials.

As they did that, they began to hear a low hum, come from the machine below, they watched as it started to glow, brighter and brighter, until it almost made them turn away, Drake stood there watching the computers work, and the scientists observing the results carefully.

"Everything's looking fine, so far, sir" one of the scientists, said looking back at Drake and the general, they looked at each other and did their best to remain calm.

Nathan heard the low humming grow louder and louder, and the machine next to the chamber glowing brighter, he looked down at his feet and saw the floor was glowing as well, which was one of the many things that confused him.

From up in the console room, they watched as the chamber he was in, began to glow brighter, which never seemed to happen in any of their previous tests, Drake turned to one of the scientists, "what's going on, why is the chamber glowing?" he asked, the scientists turned to him, "these are the settings, Professor Richards told us to enter into the computer, he felt that more power was necessary, for a human test subject, but all of our sensors, are reading, that everything's okay in the chamber" he said, Drake looked away for a minute.

"show me the calculations he set out" he said, and the other scientist handed him a tablet with numbers and equations all over it, as he ran down the tablet, his eyes grew wider, and he looked up at the general, with fear in his eyes, "Professor, what's wrong?" the general asked.

Drake looked back down at the tablet, to make sure he wasn't seeing things, these calculations were too high, they tested these kind of calculations before, the test subject didn't survive, he looked at the chamber and saw that it was glowing brightly, almost to the point where they could not see Nathan anymore, he looked at the computer screen, and saw that the energy levels were growing at an extremely fast rate, too fast to keep track of.

"oh god, he's going to kill himself, these levels are too high, no human can withstand that much radiation of any kind, even with a suit, it will kill every cell in his body, we need to get him out of there" he said, the general looked at him, his eyes wide with fear, as he turned to his lieutenant, "shut this machine down, and get him out of there, we need to clear the room, that's an order!" he shouted and the soldier ran off, but was stopped by the one of the scientists.

"The machine is in its main powering phase, it can't be turned off, until the process is finished" he said, and Drake walked up to him, "I don't care, cut the main power line, if you have to, just shut this thing down!" he yelled, just as he did, another scientist turned to him, "sir, we are reading a very high spike, in the energy wavelength, it's never been this high before" he said in a panic.

Drake ran over to him, and looked at the screen, his eyes widened in fear, he looked at the chamber, and he saw no trace of Nathan in the blinding light.

As Nathan stood there, the floor got brighter under his feet, he felt a strange feeling in his body, almost a tingling sensation, but more painful, he felt his head start to ache greatly; he fell to his knees, grasping his head, crying out in immense pain, he heard the humming turn to screeching, he felt as if his ear were bleeding, his thoughts blurred, and he felt himself loosing focus, and then everything went black.

Up in the console room, the room slowly began to shake, the power coming from the machine, was shaking the room violently, almost knocking them off their feet, "sir, the machines reaching its max power, it's going to blow!" one of the scientists yelled.

Drake heard him, and turned to the others, his eyes wild in panic, "everybody down!" he yelled and they all dove to the floor, just in time for them to hear an ear piercing boom, coming from the machine, the force of the blow, shattering the glass above them, and having it sprinkle across the room.

Soon the noise ended, and it all fell silent, they pushed themselves up, and examined all their wounds, only a few scientists were injured, from the pieces of falling glass, but no serious injuries, Drake pushed himself up, and dusted all the glass off of him, and turned to help the general up.

Whence he made sure everybody was okay, he looked down at the chamber, and his eyes widened in sheer terror, the chamber was completely destroyed, the glass walls had shattered, the machine was broken, and there was no sign of Nathan Richards.

"Oh no!" he said aloud as he ran out the door, and to the testing platform, he slowly made his way there, and approached the chamber, stepping on large pieces of thick glass, and heard it crack under his feet, the explosion, rendered the machine and the chamber, completely useless.

He stood there, just staring at the chamber, until he fell to his knees, not caring if the glass cut through his pants, he just stared at the empty and destroyed chamber, he felt tears fall down his face, his best friend was gone, and he felt it was partially his fault.

He felt the general walk up behind him, and place a hand on his shoulder.

"the computers can't seem to pinpoint his location, we still might need to get him home, we just need to fix the machine, we can't lose hope yet, we just have to pray, that he is alright" he said, Drake knew he was telling the truth, but a part of him, doubted the words he said, but he wanted to believe him, they could always rebuild the machine, and the chamber.

They had equipped Nathan with a tracking device, which would reveal his location, no matter what kind of interference, the general was right, all they could do was hope he was alive.

He pushed himself up, and they turned and walked out of the room, so that they could form a plan.

(Unknown location)

Nathan found himself walking, in an environment that he did not recognize, all he saw where large trees, and rocks, he made a guess that he was in a forest of some kind, but he had no idea where, his vision was blurred.

For reasons he couldn't explain, he felt extremely weak, his hand were pressed against his side, when he brought them up to look, he saw his hand soaked in his own blood, with each passing moment he felt weaker, but he knew he had to find help soon, or he might die.

He tried calling out for help, but nothing came out, the trees around him seemed to move, he thought he might be deep in a forest, he knew the forest was probably filled with wild, vicious animals, but for some reason, his bags were no longer with him, and he couldn't find them anywhere.

Suddenly he felt completely out of energy, and he toppled to the ground, and fell on his side, making him cry out in pain.

He just lie there, and felt his eyes began to tear up, where ever he was, he might not see his family again, or his friend Drake, or his fiancée, but he tried his best to turn on his stomach and crawl, but only got a few inches before he couldn't go any longer.

Just as he began to close his eyes, he heard a rustling sound coming from the pushes, and the flapping of what sounded like wings, he saw the shadow of some creature land in front of him, but to him it was nothing more than a silhouette, he could not tell any facial features, of who his savior was.

Then he heard what sounded like a voice talking, "hey girls, I think I found it" said a female voice, but he could not recognize it, then he saw more silhouettes coming from the tree line.

He counted six total, if they were hostile, he was too weak to defend himself, he tried his hardest reaching out to them, in a desperate cry for help, but they did nothing, "look, it's still moving, and it's bleeding heavily, maybe we should help it" came another more gentle female voice, and then he heard the first female voice, speak up again, in an angry tone.

"Maybe it might be some kind of evil creature, why would we help it" the voice said, and then they all began to erupt in argument, until a much calmer female voice spoke up.

"Enough girls, hostile or not, it needs help, we should take it to the hospital, and then I get in touch with Princess Celestia, she might know what to do, for all we know, it might be intelligent, we don't know who or what it is, so let's find out before we make any conclusions" she said, and then finally, Nathan felt himself lose consciousness.

**A/N: well, that was certainly interesting, hope you all enjoyed, see you guys next time for the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: well here we are again, I have the next chapter right here, hope you enjoy.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 3: an awkward awakening and introductions**

After the explosion in the lab, all the scientists met in the meeting room, a few floors up, all of them arguing what to do, how to rebuild the machine, and make sure that it wouldn't malfunction again, but forgetting the key problem, one of their scientists has gone missing.

Drake and the General were forced to listen to their arguing, until finally, the General had had enough, he stood up and slammed his fists on the table silencing them all, they all turned and looked at him, and quietly sat down, and waited for him to start.

"You're all acting like children; we are forgetting our biggest problem, Professor Richards has gone missing, our scanners can't pick him up anywhere on the globe, but that also means that we can't get in touch with him, and he might be in danger, what we need to do, is rebuild the machine and find a way to get him back, before it's too late, how long will it take to get the machine up and running" he said, all the scientists began to talk amongst themselves.

Then one of them turned to him, "it might take a few weeks, maybe a few months, it all depends on how many resources we have" he said, the General turned to him, "don't worry about the resources, just make sure you can get that machine up and running, as soon as possible, this meeting is over" he said as they all made their way out of the room, except for Drake, who sat in his seat, the General turned to him.

"Well get him back, I won't leave a man behind, I never have, and I hope I never will, we'll get him back" he said looking at him, Drake took a deep breath, and looked up at him.

"That's not the problem, how are we going to tell his family, I know they won't take it well" he said with a sad look on his face.

The General took a deep breath as well, and began walking out of the room, "well find a way to break it to them as easily as possible" he said as he walked out of the room.

Drake sat in his seat for a few minutes, and then walked out of the room as well.

(Unknown location)

The last thing, Nathan remembered was passing out in what seemed like a forest, and that strange group of creatures that came to him, he passed out after that, but he knew he must have regained consciousness at certain points, because he seemed to remember being placed on what felt like a stretcher.

He remembered bright lights flashing overhead, as he was wheeled away to god know's where, but he remembered the sound of voices, to many to count, but they spoke like any other human being, but from the silhouettes he saw in the forest, that couldn't be true, he had no time to think, because he slipped back into unconsciousness.

(Later…)

Nathan came too, but he could not see, aside from a very bright light, he tried to raise his arm to shield his eyes, but he could not move his arm, he was too weak, he just stared into the bright light, squinting his eyes, and slowly but surely, his vision focused, and he found himself, looking straight into a light fixture.

This confused him, he did his best to sit up, but fell to the bed with a pained groan, he felt an agonizingly painful burn in his side, and fell to the bed, just as he tried again, he heard voices approaching, he decided to act quickly, and he dropped his head down, and closed his eyes pretending to be asleep.

Just as he did, he heard a door open, and multiple sounds, which he thought was footsteps, but he didn't dare open his eyes, and let whatever took him, know that he was awake; as the voices got closer he could make out what they were saying.

"see Princess, I told you, I've never see anything like this before, do you know what it is?" a young female voice said, he tried his best to keep his eyes shut, even though his curiosity, was killing him, he then heard a much older female voice, a much slower and calmer.

"indeed, this is an interesting discovery, I'm glad you told me about this, this is very serious, when he wakes, bring him to Canterlot, I will speak with him, and find out what this is all about" she said as he heard steps walking away, "yes Princess" came the same younger voice, and then he heard more pairs of footsteps departing, but the voices remained loud enough for him to hear.

"What are we going to do, Twilight?" came a calmer voice, he heard a heavy sigh, "well, take it to see the Princess when it wakes, but for now, I'll stay here, and when it wakes up, I will give a yell, you girls go home, it's been a rough day, for all of us" the voice said, and then that was accompanied by departing footsteps, he then heard a sigh, and the sound of a person, sitting on a couch.

He finally dared to open his eyes, but only a crack, the first thing he saw was what resembled a hospital room, he looked up, and saw multiple machines, and wires that led to his arm, he looked at them with a confused look, to his surprise this looked just like a regular hospital, this race must be very advanced.

He tried to sit up, and after taking some time, he finally fully sat up, and looked at his arms, he saw the tubes feeding some kind of liquid, he reached down, and slowly began to pull each of them out, as he did he cringed, and eventually pulled all of them out, and threw them to the side.

He looked up and saw a normal looking room, like any other hospital, he began looking all around the room, his head was still foggy, he brought his hands up to his head, and began rubbing, but only adding to the pain, he couldn't help but let out a groan.

Just as he did, he heard a gasp, come from his side, and footsteps approaching and a scared voice speak up, "um, excuse me, are…are you alright?" said a voice that actually soothed him, he looked up and around the room, trying to find the source of the voice. He saw nothing in his line of site, but he thought it would be rude if he didn't answer.

"Um, yeah, I guess I am, but I feel really light headed, where am I?" he asked, he heard a sigh of relief, and began looking around the room more hurriedly, to find the speaker.

"Thank Celestia, I thought we were going to lose you" he heard the voice say, as he looked down and saw what appeared to be a horse, but with a purple coat, his eyes widened in surprise and in fear, he raised a shaky finger, "did…you just talk to me?" he said in a confused voice, the horse looked at him with a confused eye, and nodded her head, "yes, I did, you were in really bad condition" the pony said, his eyes grew wide, and he let out a scream.

"Holy shit! Talking horse!" he said as he began scrambling back in the bed, only to reach the edge, and fell straight off, and hit the floor hard, on his wounded side, he let out a painful scream, as he placed his hand on his side, and rubbed it, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps, and saw the purple colored pony rush up to him, with a panicked look on her face.

The sight of her, made him scramble back, despite the pain, he raised his hand up, "s-stay away from me, whatever you are!" he said as he felt his back press against the bed side table.

The purple pony took a step closer, "sir, are you alright?" she asked concerned, extending out a hoof, this only made his try to scoot back further, "I said stay back" he said, trying to get her to leave, "it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, my name is Twilight, I'm here to help, there's nothing to fear, what's your name?" she asked in a kind, calm voice, Nathan looked at her extended hoof, his breathing had calmed, and he looked at her.

He could tell by her face, that she meant no harm, but a part of him said that he could trust this pony, he knew it might not have been the smartest choice, but he grabbed her hoof, and helped himself up, when he was fully standing, he was much taller than her, she was up to his thigh, she smiled at him.

"What are you, if you don't mind me asking?" he said in a confused and still cautious tone, she seemed a bit confused by his question, but answered none the less, "I'm a pony, but the question is, what are you, I've never seen a creature like you before, what's your name?" she asked, with a very curious look on her face.

"Um…I'm a human, and my name is Nathan Richards, it's…nice to meet you, where am I?" he asked looking around again, "You're in the kingdom of Equestria, the best place there is to live, wow…this is really weird, first contact with an unknown creature, this is great!" she said excited, he gave a nervous smile, "I guess that makes both of us, wait…" he said looking down at her.

"Where did you say we were?" he asked curious, she looked up at him confused, "I said, we were in the kingdom of Equestria, ruled by our beloved Princess Celestia and Princess Luna" she said in a proud tone, he thought about it for a moment.

"And you said you've never seen a human before?" he said looking down at her, she shook her head, he thought about it for a moment, and then his eyes widened in shock, and a wide smile spread across his face, "YES! It worked, the machine worked, I can't believe it, and it actually worked!" he shouted loudly, Twilight just watched him laugh, still very confused, but intrigued.

"Sorry to interrupt, but what machine worked, where are you from, how did you get here?" she asked even more curious, he stopped his cheering and calmed down, to explain to her, he knelt down to her level, "well, you see, where I come from, I'm a scientist, I was working with other scientists, on trying to open a doorway to an alternate dimension, I thought something went wrong, but it turns out, it really worked" he said almost getting overly excited.

Twilight eyes lit up, "you're a scientist, so am I, that explains what happened, the Princess is going to love this, before you woke up, the Princess told me and my friends to bring you to her, when you woke, she can supply any more answers you may have, speaking of which, let me get my friends, I'm sure they would love to meet you, be right back, and you might want to change, we found those bags with you, they seem to be filled with clothing" she said as she ran out of the room.

When she said that, he realized that he was still in his hospital gown, he groaned and walked over to, his duffle bags, they seemed to be in great shape, he zipped one open, and saw all the fresh clothes he had packed, the others was filled with all his equipment, but he would worry about that later, he changed clothes, careful not to disturb the bandage around his side, he cringed as he slipped on a shirt, and took a deep breath.

He sat on the edge of the bed, and rummaged through the other bag, and brought out the communicator, to his disappointment, he saw that it was barely working, it would take some time, to get it fixed, but he decided to bring out the recorder, and brought it close up to his mouth, and pressed the record button, he had no idea, what to say, but he just winged it.

He pressed the record button, and spoke, "this is the audio log of Professor Richards, day one after the initial test, it turns out the machine worked, I am no longer on the Planet Earth, I have yet to find out more about this place, I will keep a detailed log on my discoveries, and report every time I have discovered something" he said as he let go of the button, and placed the recorder in the bag, just in time for the door to open, and the same purple pony to come in, quickly followed by five other pony creatures, all of them had different color fur, and strange marks on their hips.

All of them seemed to be giving him strange looks, except for the one he met earlier, after they all stepped in, he stood up and faced them, while Twilight gave him a smile.

"Girls, this is Nathan, he's a human, the first ever to be in Equestria, isn't this exciting, these are my friends" she said with an excited smile, gesturing to the first pony, a mare with an orange coat, and a blonde mane and tail, while wearing a cowboy hat.

"this is my friend, Applejack, the most honest and hard-working pony you will ever meet" she said, and Applejack turned to him, with a smile, "howdy, partner" she said in a southern accent, then Twilight turned to another one of her friends, a mare with a solid white coat, and a purple mane and tail, "this is my friend Rarity, the most generous pony ever" she said with a smile, the white coated mare walked up, "hello dear, my your sense of fashion, is…interesting" she said looking at his attire.

He looked down, and gave a slight chuckle, "believe me, if I knew I was going to meet an advanced race such as yourselves, I would have worn something classier" he said with a smile, just then a cyan colored pony, flew up in his face, her mane was made of all sorts of colors, like a rainbow.

"so you're a human huh, not as impressive as I would have thought, I thought you would be cooler" she said floating in mid-air, just by her tone of voice, Nathan had a feeling, that she would be annoying in the future, but rather than counter that, he knew it wouldn't make the best first impressions.

"Well, my kind are very different from your, as you could imagine, and you must be Rainbow Dash" he said, catching her off guard, "but…how did you-"she said but was cut off, but Nathan.

"I must have regained consciousness every now and then, and I heard your name, so I assumed it was yours, and it looks like I'm right" he said with a smug smile, Rainbow Dash gave a defeated sigh, and floated back to her friends, just as Twilight turned to last two friends, and gesturing towards an overly-excited pink pony, who seemed to be bouncing in place.

"This is my friend Pinkie Pie, probably the most fun pony in the kingdom" she said with a slight chuckle, the pink mare bounced over to him, her bouncing was almost high enough to reach his face, "hi, as my friend Twilight told you, I'm Pinkie Pie, and I love to throw parties" she said, Nathan couldn't help but give out a small chuckle, at her hyperactivity.

Then, Twilight turned to the last pony, a mare with a yellow coat, and a bright pink mane, she seemed to be hiding behind, her mane slightly, as if she was shy.

"And, this is my friend Fluttershy; she's the kindest pony you will ever meet" she said proudly, she seemed to be whispering something, it sounded like a greeting, but it was too quiet.

After, she finished introducing her friends; it became silent in the room, until Nathan spoke up.

"Well, it's an honor to meet all of you, this is extremely exciting for me, but I believe you said that you were told to take me to your Princess, if I remember" he said, and then Twilight remembered, as she was caught up in the moment, "oh yes, she did want us to bring you to her, we'll need to get to the train station, we'll take a short cut, around the town, so we don't arouse any suspicion, if you will come with us" she said as they all made their way out of the hospital.

**A/N: well, that was really interesting, what things does Celestia have in store, for our human friend, find out next time, and see you all then.**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: well, I got a little bored, so I decided to write the next chapter, for this story, hope you enjoy, you guys are awesome.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 4: meeting with royalty**

After they left the hospital, they took the short route to the train station, and stayed on the outskirts of town, so that not to cause any suspicion, but they eventually made their way to the train station, and ordered tickets for the next train to Canterlot.

The entire time, Nathan was amazed by what he saw, homes, actual buildings, much like the ones from earth, only they resembled an earlier era, of engineering.

His mind was completely blown, and he was overly excited, he only wished his family could see this, he took out a notepad, from one of the bags, and began writing down what he saw, every little detail.

Luckily for them, the platform was mostly abandoned, but when he passed by, the conductor looked at him in shock and surprise, but did not show any fear, "I thought they would be afraid of me, since you said that nobody has seen a human" he said as they boarded the train, "you mean nopony?" Rainbow Dash said as they, went into their compartment, Nathan made sure not to hit his head.

"I still can't believe, your civilization is almost as advanced as ours, you even have trains!" he said as the engine roared and the train pulled forward, and soon they were off, headed for the capitol city.

But in the meantime, Twilight and her friends had some questions, but so did he, "um excuse me Mr. Nathan, do you mind if we ask you a few questions?" Twilight asked as they all gathered next to her, he just shrugged and put the notepad down, "um, sure, and please, just call me Nathan" he said, turning to her, since the car was not fit for his size, he was scrunched up a bit, but it wasn't too bad.

"Okay, what is it you do, in your world, what kind of scientist are you?" she asked, an excited look in her eyes, he just chuckled, "well, I got my major in physics, but I am skilled in other types of science, such as chemistry, biology, and earth science, but that's just my major, I minored in engineering" he said with a proud look on his face, they girls just listened in amazement.

"Now, I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question or two?" he said, trying to find a more comfortable position, Twilight just shrugged as well as the others, he smiled as he sat up again, "so, tell me about this Princess of yours, is she a good ruler?" he asked, Twilight and her friends seemed taken aback by the question, but she smiled.

"oh Princess Celestia is the best ruler ever, she's kind, caring, and honest, you probably won't ever met a better Princess, or ruler" she said with a smile, Nathan sighed, he was glad to know that the ruler of this land, was very kind, he would have to make a good impression, since he is the first of his kind.

So they waited for what seemed like hours, until the train finally began to slow down, they all looked out the window, at the approaching city, all of them were excited, especially Nathan, who was excited but also nervous, he couldn't help but wonder what would happen to him, if he made a bad impression, while this race did seem advanced, he still felt that they could be mean and evil if they wanted to.

Soon, the train pulled to a stop at the Canterlot train station, and they all exited, as they passed by other ponies, they all gave Nathan strange looks, but that was to be expected, but much to his relief, they weren't running in fear, they seemed more curious than afraid.

As they got off the train, Nathan looked around, this city seemed much more high class, than the smaller town he was in before, the buildings were taller and fancier, and off to the right, he saw a large magnificent castle, it's walls glimmered, as he looked at it, his eyes filled with amazement and wonder, the castle greatly represented the old castles of medieval Europe.

Luckily for them, the station wasn't far from the castle, only up the street, and so they left the station and made their way through the city, the entire time, Nathan couldn't believe what he was seeing, the sights of the city were so amazing, he could hardly contain his excitement, Twilight and her friends, just smiled at his amazement.

"My god, I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful sight, in my life" he said still looking around, Twilight just looked back at him as they walked, "this is nothing, wait till you see the castle" she said as they came up to the gate, the walls were made of marble, it had a large moat, with a door that was hung open, as if they were expected.

They crossed and entered the courtyard of the castle, Twilight and her friends, had seen this place many times before, but for Nathan, it was a whole new experience, he couldn't stop looking around in amazement.

As they walked in further, suddenly Twilight and her friends stopped, making Nathan confused, "uh oh, that's not good" he heard Twilight say, he began looking around, trying to find out, what she was talking about.

"What, what's not good?" he asked, looking down at Twilight, she looked up at him, and pointed forward, Nathan looked up, and saw a group of ponies running up to them, from what he saw, they appeared to be dressed in sets of golden armor, they had spears pointed at them, and they didn't look too happy.

They just stood still, and the guards came up to them and surrounded them, they all stopped after they completed forming their circle, and pointed their spears up at Nathan, who just had a shocked look on his face, as he raised his hands up, openly.

"Um, was it something I did?" he asked completely clueless, even Twilight and her friends didn't seem to understand what was going on, but Twilight didn't seem to happy either, "what is this, we have a meeting with the Princess, let us through" she demanded but the guards refused to budge, but soon, they began forming and opening, and letting another stallion, he was also dressed in golden armor, but he had more decorations on his, he had a pure white coat, and he didn't seem to happy, Nathan looked down at Twilight and saw the shocked look on her face as the stallion approached.

"good work, we have the creature in custody" the male stallion said, in a mature tone, Nathan thought he was probably the captain of the guard or something along those lines, he stopped speaking when he looked at Twilight, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Twiley? What are you doing here, more importantly what are you doing with this…thing" he said gesturing towards Nathan, who just stood there with an uncomfortable look on his face, Twilight looked at Nathan and back to the captain, "Shining Armor, let us through, the Princess has told us to come here" she said angrily, he just stared at her, "you would let this creature near our Princess, when we don't even know what it is" he said angrily, but Twilight just glared at him, Nathan was surprised that she called the captain, by what was probably his name, he thought they might be related.

"_it_ is a human, and he has a name, his name is Nathan" she said with confidence, which caused Nathan to be curious of why she was standing up for him, it surprised Nathan, so he decided to speak up, "listen sir, with all due respect, I don't know much more than you, but I'm following them" he said taking a step forward, only to have the guards point the spears back in his face, making him take a step back.

Shining Armor was about to speak, but was interrupted by a loud female voice, "guards, stand down!" the voice yelled, he watched as all the guards lowered the spears, Nathan took a deep breath of relief, and lowered his hands, he looked down and saw the captain had a nervous expression, they all turned and looked at the entry way to the castle.

Nathan followed their gaze, and much to his surprise, there stood another pony, about as tall as the captain, from what he could tell, she had a bright pink coat, and a mane made of various colors, she had a calm look on her face, as she exited the entryway, and walked towards them, Twilights eyes lit up as she ran forward to the new pony.

"Cadence!" she said as she ran to her, and threw her hooves around her neck, Cadence merely smiled and hugged her back, "Twilight, it's good to see you again, and it appears you have brought an interesting friend with you" she said looking up at Nathan, as she walked next to the captain, who still had a nervous look on his face, as he turned to face her.

Twilight turned to Nathan with a smile on her face, "Nathan, this is my sister-in-law, Princess Cadence" she said with a smile, not wanting to seem rude, Nathan got down on one knee, and gave a bow, Cadence just gave him a confused look, "please good sir, there is no need to bow, I may be a Princess, but it is my aunts, who rule the kingdom" she said with a smile, Nathan blushed and stood up again.

"sorry, about that" he said rubbing the back of his neck, Shining Armor turned to the Princess, with a nervous look on his face, "Cadence, I-" he was saying but was cut off by her, "it's okay Shining Armor, I know you were just doing your job, but this human, is a guest of the Princess's and is to be treated as such" she said in a kind tone, he just looked down in shame, she smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek, which seemed to cheer him up, Nathan thought they must have been boyfriend and girlfriend or something like that, after she did, she turned back to Nathan.

"my apologies, my husband, tends to take his job, a little too seriously at times, please follow me, my aunts would like to see you" she said as they all made their way into the castle, Nathan stood for a minute, he took a deep, shaky breath, and quickly followed after them.

(Canterlot castle, outside the throne room)

As they made their ways through the halls, Nathan remembered what Twilight said to him about the castle, it was amazing on the outside, but the inside was a true masterpiece, it was decorated so well, he was distracted that he almost fell behind.

"If a may say something your highness, this is truly an amazing castle, I've never seen anything like before" he said in awe, Cadence just smiled, "well thank you, for a human, you really do seem like a nice guy, I'm sure my aunts will take a liking to you, they are great rulers, you have nothing to from them, I'm sure they will like you" she said as they approached a large door, one that Nathan assumed, led to the throne room.

Before she opened the door, Cadence turned to Nathan, with a more serious look on her face, "a bit of advice, be honest, they know more than you could ever imagine" she said as she turned and pushed open the door, the throne room was just a really long room, with the throne at the end of it, it was very long, Nathan looked around at the architecture, the beautiful stained glass windows, one had a group of ponies on it, that looked very similar to twilight and her friends.

Nathan pushed the thoughts out of his head, when he looked in front of him, the throne wasn't very high up, but the throne wasn't what caught his attention, it was the pony sitting on it, he looked up at the female pony, she had a beautifully groomed white coat, that glistened in the sun, her mane was made of every color of the rainbow, and it seemed to flowing, even though there was no wind, she had a crown on her head, and a necklace around her neck, she had her eyes closed.

The guards walked in behind them, two of the guards carried the bags Nathan had with him, Cadence and Shining Armor walked up to the foot of the throne and bowed respectfully, "your highness, we have brought the human with us" Shining Armor said, Nathan looked up over to the side and saw another pony, with a midnight blue coat and dark blue mane, that also seemed to flow, she had a crown on her head as well.

After he spoke, the princess opened her eyes, and she looked down at him, her very gaze made Nathan nervous, he watched as all the others in the room, took respectful bows, even Twilight and her friends, and even the guards.

Like before, not wanting to insult her, he got down on one knee, and bowed, liked they did in the old days of humanity, when almost every country, was ruled by a king or queen.

He bowed his head in respect; the Princess stood up and walked down to their level, not saying a word, the room fell completely silent, Nathan could feel sweat running down his face, when Celestia stood in front of them, she spoke up.

"you may all rise" she said in a calm tone, and they did, all standing up straight, Nathan took a second, but he pushed himself up and stood tall, the Princess was about as tall as he was, she didn't smile or frown, her face was completely calm, but she had a hint of curiosity in her eyes.

"you have created quite a bit of interest, care to tell us your name?" she asked as she eyes him curiously, Nathan took a deep breath, and answered her question, "my name is Nathan Richards, I am a human scientist from the planet Earth, and on behalf of my entire species, I must say it is a true honor, to be in your presence, your majesty" he said trying to sound as formal as possible, trying not to slip up, this was the most important moment of his life.

She smiled at him, and lightly chuckled, "my you are quite a gentleman, well allow me to introduce myself, I am Princess Celestia, regent of the sun, and co-ruler of this land, this is my younger sister, Princess Luna, regent of the moon" she said as the smaller blue coated pony walked up beside her, who still had a suspicious look on her face.

Nathan felt a wave of relief wash over him, "it's a true honor, to be in your kingdom, I hope that we can have peace between our two races, as this is our first time encountering each other" he said trying to be as diplomatic as possible, Celestia just smiled, at his attempt at being a diplomat, it definitely wasn't his strongest aspect.

"Ah, but this is not the first time, your kind have been here" she said, and that surprised them all, Nathan looked at her in surprise, "you mean, humans have been here before?" he asked with curiosity, she smiled at him and began walking up to him.

"Indeed, humans have been here before, many centuries ago, it was a different time, your kind was very primitive then" she said in a matter of fact tone, Nathan was completely shocked by what she said, humans had actually encountered them before, this was a whole new level of amazing.

"but I see now, that your species has advanced very well, but this raises another question, how did you get here" she asked with a curious look in her eyes, they all turned and looked at him, waiting for an answer, he took a deep breath, and explained his story.

"Well, as I told you, I am a scientist, me and a group of fellow scientists, were working on a machine that we believed would be able to open a doorway, to another world, I volunteered to be the first human test subject, but…during the process, something must have happened to the machine, causing it to malfunction, and the machine must have sent me here, and I have no way to get home, or send a single to my friends, back on Earth" he said with a hint of sadness.

Celestia looked him up and down, just as two guards walked up to them, levitating his bags, much to his amazement, "your highness, he had these bags with him, they see to be filled with weapons of sorts" the guard said with a serious look on his face, after he said that, Shining Armor spoke up.

"See, he has brought weapons with him, he means us harm" he said getting angry, but Celestia stopped all of them, "enough! I'm sure Mr. Richards here, can explain" she said as they all turned to stare at him, Nathan raised his hands in defense, as he took a step back.

"I promise you, I come here in means of peace, I only brought weapons to assure my own protection, I would never threaten harm, to anybody" he said in a honest tone, Celestia looked at him with a suspicious eye, and then at the guards holding his bags, she could tell he was telling the truth, she sighed.

"No harm done, it's understandable that one would bring a weapon with them, to assure their own safety, but as for the others items in your bags, what might they be?" she asked as they walked up to them, he sighed and unzipped the bag, "merely tools that I use to examine things, plants, minerals, I assure you, your highness, they would not cause harm to anybody" he said allowing her to examine, she was relieved to see that they were only test tubes and microscopes, much like the ones Twilight used for her experiments.

She turned to him, and looked him up and down, "very well, Mr. Richards, I believe you, as too you staying here, that is another problem" she said walking back to the throne, Nathan spoke up, "as I said before your highness, I have no way home, or anyway to contact them, I'm stranded here, until they either fix the machine, or I find a way to contact them" he said in a sad tone, she understood his fear, and got an idea.

"Very well, I will allow you to stay here, until such time that you can find a way home, I'm sure there is a place you can stay in PonyVille" she said turning to face him, just then an idea formed in Twilight's head, and she spoke up.

"If I might suggest, he can stay with me at the library, there's plenty of space for him, if he wants to" she said looking at the Princess, Celestia thought for a moment, and then turned to Nathan, "if he agrees to it, I see no reason why he couldn't stay there" she said with a smile, Nathan looked at Twilight, and smiled, "I would hate to give up a place to live for the time being, but…your highness might a make a request?" he said in a nervous tone, she looked at him with a suspicious eye, and he cleared his throat.

"your kingdom is very beautiful and prosperous, and as a scientist, I am curious to explore this world, and since humans have never been here with the technology that we have now, I humbly ask that I might be able to examine and study, the local plant life and minerals, of this world, as part of my research, while I try to find a way home, it would be a such a waste, if I would not explore this world of its riches, and I assure you, no harm will be done, you have my word" he said in a honest tone.

They all looked at Celestia; she looked at his with curiosity, and then thought for a moment, soon she smiled down at him, "I see no reason why not, I will allow you to study, so you may complete your research" she said with a smile, Nathan gave a heavy sigh of relief, "thank you your highness" he said gratefully, she smiled and sat on her throne.

"I will visit you soon, to see how your project is coming along, but for now, Farwell, I have other royal matter to attend to" she said as she sat down, Twilight walked up to him.

"This is so exciting, come on, we need to get to the station, before we miss the train" she said as they all left the room.

Nathan could tell this was going to be a very exciting next few days, but all he could do for now was wait.

**A/N: well, that was interesting, what sort of situation swill our friend get in, find out next time, see you guys then, peace out.**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: hey guys I'm back and I have another chapter for you, this one will probably be really short, but we'll see by the end, hope you enjoy.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 5: back home**

After the incident in the lab, the scientists and engineers responsible for the project, began reconstructing the machine, according to their calculations, it would take a few days to fully repair, the General and Drake weren't happy with it, but they knew it would have to be done as soon as possible.

The only other thing on Drake's mind was having to tell Nathan's family about the incident, he knew they would not take it lightly, but it had to be done, they needed to be prepared for the worst, just in case, but he still had hope they could save him, from where ever he was sent to.

But right now he had to focus on telling Nathan's family.

(United States west coast, Los Angeles, Richard's residence)

Soon after, they took a flight to Los Angeles, and went to Nathan's home in downtown, where they would have to tell the rest of his family, and they didn't take it too lightly.

"ARE YOU SHITTING ME!?" Nathan's father screamed as he paced back and forth, in front of the dining room table, his hands clenched in fists, tears pouring from his eyes, the entire family was in the dining room, Drake sitting at the far seat, the General standing behind him, a calm look on his face, even though he was getting screamed at, Nathan's mom was sitting in one of the chairs, sobbing openly, while Nathan's brother comforted her, his fiancée, was crying as well, but did her best to hide it.

"Mr. Richards if you will give me a chance to explain" the General said, turning to him, his father turned to him, "well, you better have a damn good explanation, start talking" he demanded, the General took a deep breath, "alright, before the test, Nathan was injected with a small tracking device, that could locate him anywhere on this planet, but our scientists have been trying, but they cannot locate him, if anything, this is a good sign, it means the machine worked" he said, the father just glared angrily, "of course, that's all you military asshole's think of, your machines, but you don't care about the men you lose, your telling me that our son, is lost in some other dimension, without anyway of contacting home, you have no idea what situations he's in" he said as he took a seat, next to his second son, and covered his face with his hands.

The room fell silent for a few short seconds, until the General spoke up again, "I understand your feelings, you fear of losing him, but I assure you, when the machine is rebuilt, I will personally find him and bring him back, our time is nearly done, I will wait in the car" he said putting on his cap, and walking out the front door, leaving Drake with Nathan's family.

Drake sighed and turned to them, "Mr. and Mrs. Richards I'm sure you remember that Nathan and I have been friends since elementary school, we practically grew up together, he's like a brother to me, and I know even now, you're still recovering from James's death, but I will give you my word, I will bring him back, even if I have to go through hell and back, to get him, then so be it, I won't leave my friend behind, as long as I'm breathing, I will do whatever it takes to bring him home" he said as he got up, and made his way to the door, and opened it and slowly walked out, towards the car.

**A/N: like I said, this chapter was going to be short, but either way, I hope you enjoyed, see you guys next time.**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: hey guys, sorry I haven't uploaded a chapter for this story in some time, I had other projects to work on, but here it is, the next chapter for this story, hope you all enjoy.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 6: settling in**

After his official meeting with the princess's, Nathan and his six new friends made their way back to the train station, Celestia had ordered one of her carriages to take them back, and having been taller than most creatures around, he had to sit with his head leaning forward, and his knees pushed together, an awkward silence, fell between them.

Finally Nathan decided to speak up, "so…what is it you six do, for jobs I mean?" he asked, they all looked at each other, Twilight was the first to speak up, "well, I run the local library in town, but I spend a lot of time studying" she said with a smile, Nathan smiled back, then Rarity spoke up, "well darling, I run the local boutique, I am a very skilled dress maker, if you want, I could make you a suit, but it might take some time, judging by your height" she said with a smile, Nathan thought for a moment, "I'll keep that in mind" he said, as Applejack spoke up, "well I run Sweet Apple Acres with my family, best darn apples you'll ever taste, aside from Appleloosa" she said with a smile, Nathan thought, he did love apples.

Just then Rainbow Dash got looked at him, "yeah well, I work for the weather factory, and I'm stationed in PonyVille, I help make sure everything goes as planned" she said with a proud smile, just as she did Pinkie jumped up, "yeah, I help run Sugarcube corner, it's the local bakery in town, all the sweets you could ever want" she said with a wide smile, and finally Fluttershy, "well…I um, take care of the animals, I live on the edge of the forest, the animals come to me for food, shelter, anything" she said.

Nathan was surprised, that they all had such interesting jobs, ones that weren't different from the ones back on earth, he smiled as they came to the train station, they all got out and boarded the train for PonyVille, Nathan knew he would be here for a while, he would need to find a place to stay, and get to know the area.

(Canterlot castle, throne room)

Princess Celestia stood looking out the large stained glass windows, a cold chill passed through her, and she shook, she felt a change in the air, there was a great magical disturbance, and it was coming fast, she left that train of thought when her younger sister walked up beside her, "I take it you have felt it too?" she asked, Celestia sighed, and nodded her head, "yes, there is a very powerful magical force out there, I have sensed it since our human friend has arrived" she said with her eyes closed, Luna looked up at her, "is there any way to tell what it is?" she asked, this time Celestia shook her head, "no, but whatever it is, it is very dark and evil, but it is very powerful, we all must be cautious, sooner or later it will reveal itself, perhaps our human friend is more involved than he believes" she said as she turned and walked away, Luna turned and followed her.

(PonyVille, train station)

As they got off the train, Nathan stretched fully, and looked around, being able to see the town closer, since they went around to avoid suspicion, he was amazed, the town looked like a town engineered by humans in the earlier centuries, the architecture looked similar, he looked down at his pony friends, they looked up and smiled, "well, I must say, this town is very impressive, not quite what I expected for a race of your…technological advancement" he said as they started towards the library, Rainbow turned to him and floated in front of his face, "what's that supposed to mean, is that some sort of human insult" she said with an evil glare, Nathan chuckled, "um no, I just meant to say, your species is only about…2 or 3 hundred years behind mine, it's impressive, at the most we expected to find nothing more than simple single-celled organisms, but nothing this advanced, I am speechless" he said as they arrived in town square, Nathan was looking in every direction, trying to take it all in.

As they walked, Twilight remembered something he said about a machine, "so Nathan, tell us about this machine you were working on, back in your world, and was it some sort of project?" she asked, he looked down at her as they walked, "more than just the project, it was funded by the government of the United States, our job was to build a doorway into another world, so that we might further our knowledge of science, turns out, we got more than we ever wanted" he said as they came up to a large tree-like house, "well, this is the library, what do you think?" Twilight asked looking at him, Nathan looked over the entire building, surprised that it looked like a hollowed out tree.

"it…looks great, for an oversized tree house" he said, Twilight turned to all her friends, "well girls, it's late, we've all had a long day, we'll get together tomorrow, maybe Nathan could tell us more about this world he came from" she said looking up at him with a wink, they all exchanged goodbyes, and went their separate ways, before he went in, he turned and looked at the town, before turning to the door, instead of going in, he hit his head on the top on the door, and cried out, "oww!" he yelled as he kneeled down, and walked inside, being taller than all of them he would have to lean down to go through the door, he walked inside and looked around.

The library was big, filled with shelves and books, all of them large books, "Spike! I'm back" she yelled up the staircase, she waited a few seconds, and a much younger male voice replied, "coming Twi" the voice said, followed by the heavy footsteps, of something coming down the stairs.

Nathan turned and saw a small purple scaled creature run down the stairs, the second he came down he turned and saw Nathan and instantly froze, eyes widened, Nathan stared back equally shocked, even though he hadn't been there more than a day, he could tell it wasn't a pony.

"Um Twilight, what is that thing standing in the middle of the room?" he asked, Twilight smiled and walked in-between them and cleared her throat, "I believe introductions are in order, Spike this is Nathan, he is a human scientist, it's a long story, Nathan this is my assistant Spike, he's a baby dragon" she said, Nathan looked at her with a confused look, and then back at Spike, as smile started to spread across his face, he let out a chuckle, and relaxed his tensed muscles, and took a step toward Spike, who stilled seemed cautious, despite Twilight's reassurance.

"wow, I've never seen a dragon before, and here I thought that this world was inhabited by just ponies, now I'm officially surprised" he said, looking him over, considering that Spike was even shorter than Twilight, he had to get on his knees, just as he was still looking him over, Twilight cleared her throat, Nathan turned and looked at her, "well, it's late, and this has been a long day for all of us, and I'm sure you must be very tired from your…journey, there's a spare room in the basement, come on, you can stay there" she said as she walked down the hall that lead to her basement, Nathan grabbed his bags and walked after her, careful not to hit his head on the ceiling, they walked down the hall, and Twilight walked into another room, Nathan crouched and followed after her, the room was fairly large, it already seemed furnished, all the furniture was covered by blankets, Twilight pulled the sheets off and revealed a bed, which appeared to be too small for Nathan, maybe if he was a teenager again.

"Um, that bed seems a little small for me" he said, Twilight giggled, "well, the beds here are designed for ponies, not humans, it's the best I got, sorry" she said, Nathan thought for a moment, and then rummaged through his bags, and pulled out a large wrapped up blanket, "that's okay, I came prepared, I could just sleep on the floor with my sleeping bag" he said, Twilight gave him a confused look, but shrugged and made her way to the door.

She turned back and smiled, "well, goodnight, I hope you sleep well" she said, Nathan turned to her, as he set up his bed, "listen, thanks for this, giving me a place to stay, must be pretty awkward for you, having such a mysterious creature living under your roof" he said, Twilight smiled again, "wouldn't be the weirdest thing that I've done, goodnight" she said as she closed the door.

After the bed was fully laid out, he sat on the edge of the smaller bed, taking off his shoes, and quickly changing into his sleepwear, he quickly rummaged through his bag, and pulled out the recorder, he sighed and brought it up to his lips, thinking about what he needed to say.

He sighed again and pressed the record button and spoke, "this is the audio log of Professor Nathan Richards, I am nearing the end of my first day in this new world, and already there is much to tell, the inhabitants of this world, appear to be of Equine sort, similar to that of a pony back on Earth, I have had the great honor of meeting the leader of this country, she has agreed to let me study this land, in order to better understand this place, I will go ahead with the original plan, of studying this world…" he said stopping, still holding the record button.

"…I have no way of communication to my friends and family back home, in the following days, I will continue with my mission, of trying to reestablish communication to the base, but what I do know is, there are many things that mankind has yet to understand" he said releasing the button, and putting it back in the bag, and taking out a cellphone, he flipped it open, and stared at the picture on the main screen, it was a picture of him and his fiancée, he smiled and looked at the top of the screen, the reception bar had nothing, he frowned, "no cellular reception, that's…disappointing" he said as he put it in the bag, and quickly went to his make-shift bed.

Lying down, he turned off the light, and turned on his side, thinking about this world, all the beauty it held, he was excited to learn more about, he needed to satisfy his scientific curiosity, but another feeling rose in him, fear, he feared that he may never get to see his family again, or his fiancée, just the thought sent a cold chill up his spine, he pushed that aside and closed his eyes, hoping to fall asleep quickly, he would need a lot of energy for tomorrow.

**A/N: well there you have it, I apologize for nor updating this story sooner, but I was working on my newest ones, anyway, hope you enjoyed, see you next time, peace.**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: hey guys, I'm back again with another chapter for this story; hope you have enjoyed it so far, there will be more to come.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 7: tour of the town**

It was bright and early in the morning, Nathan was still asleep in his sleeping bag, when he heard his buzzer go off, and he opened his eyes barely, when his mind finally focused, and the buzzing came to his ears, he groaned as he rolled on to his back, and began rubbing his eyes, sighing deeply, he finally sat up and hit the button on his watch to stop the beeping.

He turned and looked around him, he found himself still in the basement room of the library, he groaned as he stood up, looking around to make sure everything was fine, "so much for it being a dream" he said quietly to himself, taking off his shirt, just as he did, he heard a knock on the door, "yeah, come in" he said as the door opened, and in walked a familiar looking lavender colored unicorn, she smiled as she saw him fully rested, "sorry to interrupt you, but breakfast is ready, I'm not sure what it is you eat, so Spike and I made some hay pancakes, so yeah" she said nervously, Nathan smiled at her, bending over and searching for something in his bag, he quietly pulled out a new shirt, and turned to her.

"not sure if I've ever had hay pancakes before, but might as well try the delicacies of this world" he said pulling the shirt over his head, just before it came over his face, he could have sworn that he saw Twilight admiring his well-toned chest, but when he pulled the shirt over, she looked away, "okay, it will be waiting for you" she said leaving the hall.

As she left Nathan stood standing in the room, he went through his bag and pulled out his favorite lab coat, as finished changing into a full set of clothes, he slowly began to, slightly wincing in pain from his wound, that he got from when he came here, as he put one arm through, he noticed a large rip in the side, he observed it, and groaned loudly, "damn, this is my favorite lab coat" he said more to himself, he just took it off and held it in his hand, as he did he reached into his bag and put his cellphone, he hit the button and the main screen came on, he looked up in the corner, his reception was nothing, he frowned at this, "seriously, what's a guy got to do around here to get some reception" he said as he put it in his pocket, reaching into his bag, he took out the recorder and pushed it into his pocket, reaching in for his wallet, he flipped it open, and laughed when he saw that he still had some money in it, "well, this probably won't be of much use" he said closing the flap of the wallet.

As he was about to close it, he looked and saw the picture of him and his fiancée, he frowned slightly as he took the picture out, and held it in his hands, it was a picture of when they were still dating in college, he felt his eyes grow moist, "I will come back, for you, for all of you" he said as he looked at the picture behind it, a picture of his family, him, his brother Jake, his parents, his fiancée, and standing behind him was his oldest brother James, he felt a tear fall down his cheek, as he remembered the day they learned of his death, he looked at the picture, "nothing's been the same without you, big bro" he said as he put the two pictures back in his wallet and put it in his back pocket, grabbing his ripped coat, he walked out the door, making sure not to hit his head, and closing the door behind him.

(PonyVille library, kitchen)

Twilight was sitting at the table enjoying her breakfast, as Spike brought over another batch of hay pancakes, she looked up when she heard footsteps approaching, she watched as Nathan walked into the room, "uh Twilight, do you know of any tailor shops around here, my favorite lab coat is ripped" he said looking to her, she thought for a moment and then smiled, "well, there's Rarity's boutique, I'm sure she can sew it for you, we can go there after breakfast" she said with a smile, Nathan smiled back as he sat down, making sure to get into the most comfortable position he could, since the table was not fit for his size.

He watched as the young dragon, placed a plate of hot hay pancakes in front of him, to him they looked like any other pancakes, he remembered when his mom would make pancakes on Saturday morning for him and his brothers, they even smelled the same, he looked around the table and saw a block of butter, and a bottle of syrup, at least that was the same, he reached over and spread some butter on it, as well as some syrup, he hesitantly cut a piece off, and lifted it to his mouth, he looked at it curiously, he looked over and saw Twilight giving him a curious look, he shrugged his shoulders and placed it in his mouth, and slowly began chewing.

As he did, he is eyes widened, much to his surprise, it tasted good, better than good, he took another piece and another and shoved it in his mouth, he chewed with delight, he looked up to see Twilight and Spike giving him confused looks, he finished chewing and swallowed, "sorry, I didn't realize how hungry I really was, come to think of it, I haven't eaten since I got here, too much excitement, but I never thought that _hay_ pancakes would be so good, they taste just like the ones my mom used to make when I was a kid" he said taking another bite.

Twilight merely smiled as she took a bite of hers, they both sat in silence as they ate, just as he finished his plate, Spike came to take it, Nathan looked over at Twilight, "so Twilight, tell me about yourself, your family and your friends, I'll probably be here for a while, so might as well get to know the locals" he said with a smile, Twilight smiled back, as Spike took her plate as well, "well, I was always here, I was born in Canterlot, both me and my brother, when I was old enough, I wanted to enroll in Celestia's school for gifted unicorn's, but my exam didn't quite go as planned, it went better than I could have imagined, Princess Celestia herself came to the exam, after I kind of destroyed the classroom, she made me her personal student, my brother, as you could tell, became captain of the royal guard, and eventually married Princess Cadence, who also happens to be the ruler of the Crystal Empire, but that's a topic for another time, and then…it's a long story after that" she said with a small smile.

After they both finished their meals, they got ready to go for a walk in town, Twilight levitated the bag on to her back, as Nathan waited for her, "alright Spike, I'm taking Nathan for a tour of the town, watch the library while I'm gone" she said as they walked out the door, Nathan making sure not to hit his head, crouched and walked through the door.

The sun was shining brightly in the sky, as they walked outside, Nathan turned to Twilight and watched as she closed the door with her magic, "I'll bet having magic comes in handy?" he said with a smile, she looked up at him curiously, "indeed it does, you humans don't have magic, do you?" Nathan rubbed the back of his head, "um, not as far as I'm concerned, we do have magicians, but that's about it, and most of the time it's cheap parlor tricks" he said putting his hands in his pockets, they both fell silent for a moment, "so…where are we headed?" he asked looking around, she smiled up at him, "well, you wanted to go and see if Rarity could fix your coat, her shop is just down the street" she said as she started walking that way, Nathan watched her for a minute, looked in all directions and quickly ran after her.

(A few minutes later…)

After walking through the streets of the town, Nathan could see all the weird looks he was getting from the other locals as they passed by, some of them even started whispering, as they continued walking, "um, why are they all staring at me?" he asked, looking down at Twilight, she turned her head and looked up at him, "well, probably because nopony has seen a human before, but as long as you do good, they'll come to respect you" she said, as she turned her head, Nathan groaned and rolled his eyes, "great, it's college all over again" he said quietly to himself, he watched as they came up to a single building, Twilight stopped and motioned for him to follow.

As they entered, Nathan had to crouch again, they walked into the main room, and looked around, Nathan looked at all the multi-colored dresses and suits, "wow, your friend really knows fashion" he said looking around, Twilight merely giggled, "you have no idea" she said, just as a unicorn with white fur, came trotting down the steps, she had a smile on her face, when her eyes came on Twilight, her smile widened, "ah Twilight, good to see you again, and even better that your human friend is here, how are you today?" she asked, mainly to Nathan, he looked down at her, "oh I'm fine, still trying to adjust to this world" he said with a smile, she smiled back and walked over to her sewing desk, this time Twilight spoke up, "actually, were just stopping by, Nathan wanted to know if you can fix his coat?" she asked, Rarity turned to her with a serious look, "hmm, I suppose I can try, let me see it" she said, Nathan lifted it up, and handed it to her, he watched as she levitated it and began turning it, placing her hoof to her chin, they all waited for her to answer.

After observing for a few minutes, "well, it's hard to say, I'm not familiar with the clothing style of your species, but I do enjoy a challenge, I'll see what I can do, I could have it done in a few days, I suppose" she said still examining it, Nathan smiled down at Twilight, as Rarity walked to her desk, she spoke up, "oh Twilight, before you leave, the girls were wondering if you wanted to organize a little picnic for tomorrow, it's been a while since we did that, just to relax and get some fresh air, what do you say" she said looking at her, Twilight looked up at Nathan who merely shrugged, Twilight looked back at Rarity and smiled, "sure, that would be very nice, well, we need to get going, see you tomorrow" she said as they walked out the door.

(Later…)

As they walked through the town, Nathan was still taking it all in, even now, he couldn't believe how advanced they were, as they walked, Twilight felt the growing need to ask him a specific question, "um Nathan, when we were at the castle, meeting the princess, you said something about doing research?" she asked curiously, he looked down at her and sighed, "well yeah, my original mission was to study and examine the various living organisms of the world I would end up, turns out it's here, I was assuming there would be a place where I could do so" he said, Twilight thought for a moment, and then an idea popped into her head, "I know a place, the forest where we found you, is full of plant life and other things you could study, but the Everfree Forest is a very dangerous place, if we didn't find you in time, you would have probably become something's lunch, and you'll probably need a guide, there's only one pony I can think of who knows that forest well" she said as she changed her direction and walked down another street, Nathan stopped for a moment, and quickly ran after her.

(PonyVille, fluttershy's house)

As they walked along the small dirt path that lead to her house, they could start to hear humming, as they got closer and came around the corner, they saw Fluttershy, hovering around feeding her animals, she flew over sprinkling feed in front of the chickens, Twilight and Nathan walked over to her, and Twilight cleared her throat, catching off guard, Fluttershy accidently dropped the bag, and it spilled on to ground, she quickly turned and saw the two of them, and immediately calmed down, and floated down to them and smiled.

"oh hi Twilight, I didn't know you were coming by today, you startled me" she said in her normal voice, Twilight smiled back, "sorry about that, but we wanted to ask you something, since Nathan is a scientist and all, he was wondering, if you could take him into the forest to study some of the plant life and all that, nopony knows the forest better than you" Twilight said in a matter of fact tone, Fluttershy's face flushed, at the idea of going into the forest, but she knew Twilight was right, but before she got a chance to answer, they heard a loud crashing come from her house, followed by frustrated cries, Fluttershy immediately ran up to her house, Twilight gave an annoyed sigh, "ugh, that must be Discord" she said walking after her, Nathan quickly followed, "who's Discord?" he asked in a confused tone, he watched as Twilight sighed, "it's also a long story" she said as they walked in, and saw some of the furniture turned over, and books on the floor.

Fluttershy had an upset look on her face, "Discord, stop this, you're making a mess" she said in a slightly angry tone, there was a loud crash from the kitchen, as a furry white bunny came hopping out, quickly followed by a large dragon looking creature, with what appeared to be a mix of limbs from all sorts of creatures. The large creature stood up and rubbed his head smiling, "sorry Fluttershy, but I'm busy trying to catch that big eared rat of yours" he said as he looked down at her, Twilight gave a loud groan, "Discord, I know your reformed and all, but you really need to find some other activities, aside from playing pranks on a rabbit" she said with an annoyed look on her face, Discord turned to her, "well what am I supposed to do, I'm the god of chaos, not a pet sitter, you ponies are so boring" he said hovering in the air, with an annoyed look on his face, as angel stuck his tongue out at him.

Just as Twilight was about to speak up again, Discord rested his eyes on Nathan, and his eyes widened, "what is that, Twilight, you do know your being followed by a tall, hairless monkey" he said pointing at Nathan, Twilight looked up at him, and then back at Discord, "oh yes, introductions, Nathan this is Discord, Discord this is professor Nathan Richards, he's a human" she said, Discord vanished and reappeared in front of Nathan, hovering in front of him, getting up in his face, narrowing his eyes, Nathan leaned back slightly, an awkward look on his face, suddenly Discord leaned away, and burst out laughing, hovering a few inches above the ground, "oh, this is hilarious" he said laughing enough, that he was crying, Nathan looked down at Twilight confused, "um, was it something I said?" he asked, Twilight looked up at him and shrugged.

Discord kept laughing as he wiped the tears from his eyes, a few seconds later he started calming down, "oh how funny, a human here in Equestria, I haven't seen one of your kind in eons, my how you've changed" he said calming down, he calmly stretched out his bear paw, "pleasure to meet you, I'm Discord, master of all things chaotic, and you are?" he asked with a smirk, Nathan looked at the bear paw suspiciously, and hesitantly reached out his hand and shook it, "okay, my name is Nathan Richards, I'm a scientist in my world, I can't say I've met a creature like you before, this is interesting" he said with a confused look on his face, Discord merely smiled at him, "no I don't suppose you have, the last time I saw one of your kind, you were so primitive, your clothing barely consisted of a piece of cloth around your waist" he said with a smile, they kept staring at each other, "alright then, what's your story?" Nathan asked him, Discord looked a bit shocked, "who me? Unfortunately it would merely bore you, being such a sophisticated human and all, it's a story for another time, now if you'll excuse me, I need to find that rat" he said looking around the room for angel, and then disappearing in a flash, they both turned to Fluttershy, who just sighed and started going around picking up fallen books, "okay then, Fluttershy, you think you can take Nathan into the forest some time?" Twilight asked.

Fluttershy turned to her, a worried look on her face, "I suppose I could, didn't Rarity tell you we were planning a picnic?" she asked walking up to them, "yes she did, if you girls want to do it tomorrow, that's fine, I don't have any studying planned, so you two can go out into the forest the day after tomorrow, does that sound good?" she asked looking up at Nathan, who merely shrugged his shoulders, "yeah, fine by me" he said, Twilight turned to Fluttershy, who merely nodded her head.

Twilight smiled as turned to make her way to the door, "alright then, come on Nathan, let's get back to the library, we've been here longer than I thought, we need to get some shopping done" she said as walked out the door, Nathan nodded to Fluttershy, and quickly followed her out.

**A/N: wow, that chapter took some time to write, but there you have it, a nice long chapter, hope you enjoyed it, more to come later on, stay tuned.**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: well, since the support for this story seems so big, I decided to write another chapter for this story, so I hope you all enjoy.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 8: the picnic**

After leaving Fluttershy's house, and going about their business for the day, they returned home and spent of the rest of the day talking and getting to know each other, and eventually they went to bed to prepare for the picnic tomorrow.

(The next day…)

Nathan and Twilight's friends stood against the wall of the library, watching Twilight run around the library in a panicked way, "oh, where did I put it, I know it's here somewhere" she said running around the library, Nathan watched her with a confused yet amused look, he leaned down slightly to Rainbow Dash, "is she always like this?" he asked, she sighed and nodded, "pretty much all the time" she said, Nathan frowned as she came up to them.

"Where is it?" she said looking around the room, Rainbow Dash floated up to her, "Twilight calm down, we already told you, we have everything we need for the picnic, it is just a picnic after all, not the Grand Galloping Gala, let's just go" she said as they all made their way to the door, and headed out, Twilight smiled and blushed as she followed after them, closing the door behind her.

(Fields outside PonyVille)

As they walked through the field's just outside of town, they found a nice flat spot on the ground, "this should be a good spot" Twilight said unrolling a large blanket with her magic and placing it on the ground, followed by the basket full of food, they all got a spot on the ground, Nathan chose to lie on his side, while Twilight passed out some drinks, and started placing plates of food on the blanket, "oh my, it's just gorgeous out" Rarity said as she put on her overly fashionable sunglasses, even thought they were under the shade of a tree.

As they all chatted eating their food, Nathan found it particularly interesting, trying new types of food, even thought, much of them resembled things back on earth, bags of potato chips, bottles of what appeared to be flavored soda, much to his surprise, he even tried a daisy sandwich, as was surprised to find that it was actually good, better than he thought a flower sandwich would be.

"huh, this is actually a really good sandwich, the food here isn't that much different from the food back on earth" he said taking another bite, Twilight looked up at him, and swallowed her food, "okay, tell us a little about your world Nathan, I think we all would like to hear that" she said, and all her friends turned to him, he swallowed his mouthful of food, and looked at all of them, he let out a chuckle, "well, there's a lot to tell, I'm a scientist not a historian, the human race has been known for many things, it's curiosity, it's knowledge, it's desire to make new things….it's love of war" he said the last part sadly, putting his sandwich down, Twilight and her friends all exchanged worried and scared looks.

"that doesn't sound very good" Twilight said sadly, Nathan looked up at her, and then at the others, "no…it wasn't, human history is full of conflict, mostly over the stupidest things, desire of expansion, the type of government, religion, the list is endless, just in the past century alone, we've had more wars than we wanted…but not all humans are bad, things have changed, for the better, world hunger is being reduced, the economy is greatly improving, conflicts are being resolved, some people are calling it a new era of peace, there not wrong, but the world is far from being a peaceful place" he said with a slight smile.

Twilight and her friends all looked at each other worriedly, but then Twilight decided to change the subject of the conversation, "well, let's talk about something else, tell us about yourself, your family, friends, stuff like that" she said with a smile, Nathan looked up at her with a smile and chuckled lightly, "well it's nothing that special, I'm just an average guy, but…I was born in a city called Los Angeles, the youngest of three brothers, there was me, my brother Jake, and our oldest brother James" he said the last part sadly, but that frown faded, as Twilight asked another question, "what about your parents, what do they do?" she asked, he laughed a little and smiled.

"my mom was an English professor, at a prestigious university, and my dad was a writer, he mainly wrote crime suspense stories, and he was very good, and he still is, I guess that's what drew my mom to him" he said with a laugh, remembering all the good times he had with his family, his brothers and his parents, "I got good grades in school, most of the time, got accepted into a very good college, and graduated with a master's degree in physics, and then I was hired by my country's government, to work on a top secret military project, the years went by and the machine was finished, and then…here I am" he said with laugh.

They all smiled but Twilight was still curious to know more, "what about your brothers, what do they do?" she asked, and after she did, Nathan's smile disappeared, and was replaced with a frown, they all listened intently, "my brother Jake, he, uh, designs new models for cars, for a big manufacturing company, and my oldest brother James, is…was in the Marines" he said with a sad look on his face, Twilight and her friends all saw the sad look and exchanged worried looks, "you said he was, what happened, did he retire, or get discharged?" Rainbow Dash asked, he looked up at her, a sad look in his eyes, and looked at the others, "no…it wasn't like that, he…he died, he was killed in the service" he said as a tear appeared in his eye and slid down his cheek, he quickly wiped it away.

They were all shocked to hear that, Twilight looked over at him, "were sorry to hear that, how…how did he die?" she asked, not sure if she really wanted to know, he looked up at her, a surprised look on his face, he used the sleeve of his shirt to dry his eyes, and then he cleared his throat, not really sure if he wanted to tell that story, but he sighed heavily, and began.

"Like I said he was in the Marines, he was the top soldier in his squad, everyone liked him, and even in school he was very popular, it was just two days before they would be going over sea's, when tragedy struck" he said with a sad tone, to match the look in his eyes, he cleared his throat again, "his squad leader, had returned from another tour, he lost all his men, the doctors said he was mentally okay, but that's not how it turned out, two days before they shipped out, I guess the stress and the guilt of leading another squad…made him snap, he lost his mind, went on a rampage across the base, killing his entire squad, aside from James, he was making his way to the ammunitions room, he was planning on blowing it up, killing all the soldiers on the base, apparently he believed that he was saving the other soldier's from a more gruesome death, he got there, James went to stop him… he stopped him, but was shot in the chest, the bullet broke one of his ribs and pierced his lungs, after the other soldiers got there, they immediately took him to the medical clinic, but…he had already lost too much blood, he died before they even got there" he said as tears poured down his cheeks, Twilight and all her friends looked at each other, shocked looks on their faces, they had no idea, that he was carrying that kind of pain with him.

After a few minutes, Nathan calmed down, wiping the tears from his face, he composed himself better, "at the funeral service, he was given full military honors, he was buried with a medal of honor, we also received one, the president himself was there, he gave us his sincerest condolences, and presented us with a folded American flag…I guess you could say he died a hero, saving the lives of all those soldiers, my brother was a great man, me and my brothers, we hardly ever fought, Jake and I looked up to him, he was an inspiration for us, he was always there, now that he's gone, it just…doesn't feel the same" he said looking off into the distance, Twilight and all her friends looked down sadly, Twilight then looked up, "Nathan, I…we didn't mean to…make you think about that again, I shouldn't of asked" she said looking down in shame, he wiped what was left of the tears away, and looked up at her, "no, it wasn't your fault, I loved my brother, but I shouldn't dwell on the past, it happened some time ago, but the pain is still there…I still remember the day we were told about his death" he said, looking off into the distance, as if in a trance.

(Flashback) 2 years ago

Nathan was calmly driving down the street that leads to his parent's house; he had just gotten back from another week, of working in the laboratory, progress on the machine had hit a road block, and while the other scientists had started working on it, the General gave him a week off, and he was on his way to give his parents and brother a surprise visit, he slowly pulled his car up beside the sidewalk, and shut off the car, and climbed out.

He shut the door, and saw his brother and sister-in-law in the garage with their daughter, he smiled to himself as he made his way up the driveway, as he got closer, he heard a young female voice, "daddy, Uncle Nathan's here!" followed by the thumping of feet, as a little girl came running down the driveway at him, his smile widened as he knelt down, and picked her up as she hugged him, "hey there, Angelica, how are you, oh my, you've gotten bigger, in the past few weeks alone" he said carrying her, as his brother walked up to him, with a smile on his face.

"Well, this is a surprise, what brings you here, I thought you'd still be in the desert" he said as Nathan put his niece down, and shook his brother's hand, and then hugging his sister-in-law, Jake wiped his hands on a cloth, Nathan looked back and saw that he was working on their dad's car.

"wow, dad's still making you work on that thing, I thought he decided to trash it" he said with a laugh, Jake laughed with him, "yeah, well you know dad, the man can change his mind in an instant, speaking of which, did you tell them you were coming by?" he asked Nathan merely smiled, "well, progress has been slow, so the General gave me a week off, just got back a day or two ago, already told Abigail, but I thought I would stop by, and surprise you all, and I would have done it, if it weren't for this little devil" he said smiling down at his niece, Jake smiled at him, "well, better tell them you're here" he said as Jake walked up the back steps, and opened the door, and leaned in, "mom, dad, come outside, we got a visitor" he said, as he walked back down, a minute passed as the door opened again, and walked out two other people, they looked down and saw him, their eyes widened.

"oh Nathan, what a surprise this is, why didn't you tell us you were coming, or that you were even off" his mom said coming down the stairs and hugging him, "calm down mom, I just got back a few days ago, I like to relax a little, I'm surprised Abigail didn't tell you anything, knowing her and how she loves to spoil my surprises" he said with a smile, his mother smiled and pushed him back a little, "young man, that's no way to talk about your fiancée" she said with a devilish grin, Nathan smiled back, "young man? Mom I'm 25 years old, and were not going to be officially married until I finish my contract" he said with a laugh, as his dad walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder, "speaking of which, how is it out there in the middle of the desert, it must be hot, how's the uh, _special_ project going" he said with a chuckle, Nathan looked at him calmly, "come on dad, you know I can't talk about it outside the base, even to family, they could be watching me right now" he said in a joking voice, and they all laughed.

After the laughter died down, his mom smiled at him, "well, lunch is just about ready, why you don't come inside" she offered, Nathan smiled and was about to answer, but his brother beat him too it, "actually, I was just about to finish working on the car, Nathan could help me out, and get it done faster" Jake offered, his parents looked at each other, and shrugged their shoulders, "well, if you two want too, just come in when you're done" he said and they all went in, leaving the two brothers alone on the driveway.

Jake sighed and walked back to the car, Nathan followed, "what's it you need help with?" Nathan asked, as his brother got back on the slider, and moved under the car, "I just need to finish with the brakes, hand me that wrench on the table" he said, Nathan grabbed it and handed it to him, and he calmly leaned against the car's hood, "you hear anything from James?" Nathan asked, he could hear his brother working on the car, but he still answered, "um, yeah earlier in the week, he said he would be shipped out over sea's, in about a week," he said as he slid out and wiped his hands off again, "well that ought to do it" he said as he fully stood up, Nathan smiled and was about to answer, when he heard the sound of a car coming up the driveway.

He turned and looked, and much to his surprise and concern, he saw a military vehicle pull up next to his, "Jake, you might want to see this" he said, as his brother walked next to him, and watched as two men got out of either side, dressed in high-ranking military uniforms, Jake looked at Nathan with concern as they both walked to meet them, "good day officer's, what can we do for you?" Jake asked, shaking both their hands, they both looked at each other; "are you Jake and Nathan Richards, James Richards younger brothers" the first one asked; Nathan and Jake exchanged worried glances, "yes we are, has something happened to him, is he okay?" Nathan asked worriedly, the officer's looked at each other sadly, "are your parents' home, it would be best that you are all told together" the second one said calmly, Nathan and Jake looked at each other again, and they nodded and lead them up into the house.

(End flashback)

Nathan sat there on the blanket looking down at his hands, Twilight and her friends, just sat there as well, completely stunned as too what he was telling them.

"they told us everything that happened, how he died, hoe he saved the lives of hundreds of soldiers, and that he was being hailed as a hero, but ever since then, it's just…never been the same" he said clearing his throat, surprisingly, he wasn't crying anymore, he looked up at all them, he let out a light chuckle, "like I said it was some time ago, my mom always taught me, not to dwell on the past, but sometimes you can't help it, it just happens, and you find yourself remembering, it took some time, but eventually the wounds healed, and our family started to have fun again, my finance was there for me, she did her best to comfort me, she too lost a sibling to war, but that was when she was a little girl, I still remember when she first found out, at the time I was just completely distant" he said.

(Flashback) 2 years ago

It had just been a day since Nathan and his family, had been told of his brother's death, at the hands of a mad man, later that day Nathan returned home, sorrow filled his heart, they were told when the funeral would be held, and that the president himself, sends them his condolence's, and will personally attend the funeral, and award him a medal of honor, for his heroic deeds.

Nathan lay in his bed, the sun was shining through the half open window, he turned his head and glanced at the bed-side clock, that read an hour past noon, his hands were on his stomach, as he laid there, lost in thought, he suddenly heard knocking on his front door, he lifted his head up, thinking it was just one of his neighbors, living in a very nice apartment complex, he had lots of neighbors, but then a voice spoke up, "Nathan, I know you're in there, come on, open up" he heard a female voice say, he recognized it as his fiancée's voice, he quickly crawled out of bed, and put one of his shirts on, and calmly walked to the door.

He looked through the eye hole, and he quickly unlocked the door, and was met with a grateful hug from his fiancée, she hooked her arms around his shoulders, and held him tight, she let go and closed the door, and turned to him, "Abigail? What are you doing here, I thought you were with your parents for the week?" he asked confused, "Drake called me and told me what happened, I'm so sorry about your brother, he told me everything, it's tragic" she said with a sad look in her eyes, Nathan stared at her for a moment and then walked over and sat on the couch, she quickly walked over and sat next to him, and snuggled close to him, her head on his chest.

He hesitated but he placed an arm on her shoulder, and rubbed it up and down, she sighed sadly, "how you holding up?" she asked, for a brief moment, Nathan felt insulted by the question, and he didn't know why, "I just found out that my brother was killed by some crazy son of a bitch, how do you think I feel?" he said moving away slightly, Abigail looked at him startled, he never acted like this, she looked down for a minute, and scooted a little closer, using her hand to bring his face to hers, she planted a light kiss on his lips, one he didn't seem interested in returning, but he eventually kissed her back, and they separated, "I know how you feel, I lost my older brother to the war, but you can't keep yourself locked up in here, it's not healthy, there was nothing you could have done" she said comforting him, he looked into her eyes, tears started welling up, as he placed his head against her chest, and much to her surprise, he started crying, she sat there for a minute, and placed a hand on the back of his head, "shhh, it's okay, it's okay, just let it out" she said quietly, as Nathan cried into her shoulder, mourning the loss of his older brother.

(End flashback)

Nathan smiled as he remembered all the good times, he had with his family, his brothers, his parents, his fiancée, Twilight and the others saw this as an opportunity to take the conversation, in a more pleasant direction, "well, tell us about your fiancée then, what's she like?" Twilight asked curiously, as they all leaned in, anxious to hear his story, Nathan looked at all of them and chuckled, the sorrow of the previous conversation fading away, "oh, she's amazing, I think you would like her, we first met our freshmen year of college, started out as friends, we started dating around the middle of our second year, she was studying to be a writer, I was studying to be a scientist, a lot of people, even me family, thought that we were complete opposites, but I guess what they say is true, love is blind" he said with a laugh and they all laughed as well.

"Just a few months before I came here, she had been working on her first story, I was reading the rough draft, and she's an excellent writer, she write's suspense thrillers, and the occasional supernatural thriller, I hope one day, she'll make it big, I have every bit of faith in her" he said reaching into his back pocket, and pulling out his wallet, he pulled out the picture of his family, and handed it to Twilight who levitated it in front of her and her friends, "it's a picture of my family and I, my brother James is behind me and my brother Jake, our parents our to our right, and my fiancée is next to me" he said as they all observed the picture in amazement.

Completely unaware of the time, Twilight looked up and saw the sun, was slowly beginning to make it's was towards the horizon, "oh my gosh, it's that late already, we better eat our food and go" she said as they finished up their food, and quickly rolled up the blanket and made their way back into town.

(United States, Nevada desert, secret military installation)

The General and Drake stood in the observation room, looking over the main lab, where the machine had exploded, and sent their friend to a strange alternate world, they watched as some of the scientists and engineers, began removing the damaged parts of the machine, Drake and the General stood up in the room alone, "how extensive is the damage?" he asked, Drake just watched as the people came in and out of the room below, "no casualties, but any injured scientists are being taken to the medical wing, as for the machine, the damage is greater than we previously thought" he said is a serious tone, the General turned his head and looked at him.

"How long until you can get it functioning again, we will need a much bigger container" he said in a calm tone, Drake kept his gaze focused on the workers below, "that depends on how much time you're giving us, and how many resources we can get, it took over three years to build this machine, we don't have that much time, not if Nathan's in trouble, he hasn't activated his beacon, we don't even know if he is alive" he said turning to him, the General sighed.

"I just got off the phone with the president not long ago, he's authorized me to give you unlimited resources, how quickly can you get it rebuilt?" he asked, Drake looked away for a minute, and then looked back down at the room below, "I would say…it could be complete in a month's time" he said turning to face the General again, the General sighed and looked away, "very well, in the meantime, I will be assembling a team, to go in a find him, if he's in danger, we'll kill whatever is holding him captive" he said as he slowly started making his way to the door, but was stopped by Drake, "general…I have a special request, let me lead this team" he said, the General turned to face him, a concerned look on his face.

"why would you want to do that?" he asked, Drake's face turned dark, "because, if I find that he's hurt, I can personally kill whatever's taken him" he said, his face turning into a sinister frown.

**A/N: wow, that chapter ended up being a lot longer than I thought, but I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter, it was interesting to write, well see you all next time.**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: the positive reviews for this story keep on coming, I want to thank you all for your support, so I have decided to present you with another chapter for this story, sit back, relax, and read as the stakes grow higher, hope you enjoy.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 9: walk in the forest**

Nathan slowly opened his eyes, as he heard his buzzing alarm go off, he groaned as he sat up, despite that he was sleeping on the floor, he actually felt well rested, he groaned again as he stretched his back, and heard his bones pop, he slowly stood up and threw on a fresh pair of clothes, just as he heard a knock on the door, "yeah, come in" he said, the door flew open and in walked Twilight and Spike, "is everything ready?" he asked, Twilight smiled and nodded, "yes it is, Fluttershy's waiting at her cottage, but I should warn you, there are many creatures in that forest that are very dangerous, things you probably don't have in your world" she said as she walked back down the hall.

Nathan watched her for a minute, he looked down and reached into his bag for equipment, taking out small cutters, and some bags, he looked back at the door to make sure nobody saw him, he slowly pulled out his 9mm handgun, checking a second time, that he wasn't being watched, he pulled out the clip, and made sure it was fully loaded, he was relieved to see that it was, he put the clip back in and slid the gun, under his belt, and pulled his shirt over it, and stood up, making sure he had all the essentials, he walked out, closing the door behind him.

(PonyVille, Fluttershy's house)

As they walked up to her house, they saw Fluttershy talking to Discord, as she walked out of her house, "now remember, keep an eye on the place, I won't be gone long, and stop messing with angel" she said, Discord nodded, "of course Fluttershy, I wouldn't dream of messing with that rat of yours" he said as he slammed the door shut, Fluttershy smiled at them as they walked up to her, "hey Fluttershy, you ready?" Nathan asked, she looked up at him with a smile, "yes I am, got everything I need" she said with a weak smile, Twilight looked up at him, "how long do you think you'll be gone?" she asked, a worried look on her face, Nathan thought for a minute, and shrugged his shoulders, "um, I'm not sure, won't be too long, just going in to collect a few samples, with Fluttershy with me, I'm sure I won't get lost" he said smiling at her, as she simply smiled back, a light blush to her cheeks.

Nathan and Fluttershy both turned and started making their way down the small dirt path into the forest, "you ready?" Nathan asked, Fluttershy merely nodded, Twilight merely watched as they slowly disappeared into the shadows of the forest, when they were completely gone, she sighed and slowly made her way back to the library.

(Everfree forest)

As Nathan and Fluttershy walked along the path through the forest, Nathan was looking in all directions, taking in everything he saw, "wow, you and your friends really found me here?" he asked looking at her, she nodded her head, also watching for any signs of danger, "yeah we did, when we found you, you looked seriously hurt, you were bleeding from a gash at your side, from there we took you to the hospital, and you know the rest" she said as they kept walking, Nathan had the strange feeling that they were being watched, and that something bad was going to happen, he felt a shiver run up his spine, making him shudder, "geez, I think I know why you don't like this place, it's creepy as hell, this isn't the kind of forest I would want to go camping in" he said as they suddenly came into a clearing in the forest, the sun brightly shined down through the opening.

"this is a good spot, I'd rather not go any farther, if you don't mind" Fluttershy said, as Nathan walked forward, chuckling a bit, "can't say I blame you" he said as he looked down and saw a small plant, with other plants surrounding it, all over the clearing.

He smiled as he got on his knees, and pulled out his clippers and a small plastic bag, while Fluttershy kept an eye out, he leaned in further, and examined the flower, he observed it as he brought out his recorder, and pressed the record button, "this is the audio log of professor Nathan Richards, four days have passed since my arrival to this mysterious world, I have been given a chance to examine the plant life of this land, as from my observations, the plant life doesn't seem very different from ours, back on Earth, I will collect some samples, and take them back to my living quarters here, and examine them further" he said as he released the button and put it back in his pocket, he carefully knelt down, and opened up the bag.

During that time, Fluttershy watched the surrounding forest, for any sings of danger, so far there was nothing, she heard Nathan speaking to something, she turned around and saw him holding a small mechanical box up to his mouth, "um, Nathan what is that?" she asked, turning to him, he looked back at her, pulling out his recorder again, "it's just a recorder, I use it to record my voice, to keep for later, to preserve my observations" he said as he went back to his plant, after he did, Fluttershy heard a twig snap behind her, she quickly turned around, and saw nothing.

She looked into the forest, and for a second, she thought she saw moving shadows, some of them with glowing yellow orbs, Fluttershy thought for a moment, and realized what it was, and it made her blood run cold, "um, Nathan, I think we should be going now" she said as she started backing up.

Nathan heard her and replied, "What? But we just got here, I need to collect some samples" he said as he clipped of a few leaves of the flower, and placed them in his bag, "but it can't be, this isn't timber wolf territory" she said as she started to hear growling coming from the shadows of the tree line, Nathan was about to ask what she meant, when a particularly loud roar came from the shadows, this time Nathan heard it.

He quickly stood up, putting the bag and clippers in his pocket, "what is that sound?" he asked, looking into the tree line, he watched as he saw multiple glowing orbs emerge from the tree line, followed by more growling, "it's timber wolves" Fluttershy said, complete fear in her voice, Nathan looked down at her, and reached under his shirt and pulled out his handgun, and brought it forward, as three large shadows emerged from the tree line, revealing to be large wolf-like looking creatures, except that they were made of wood, Nathan looked down at Fluttershy, who was shaking in her hooves, "um, Fluttershy, what should we do?" he asked as the growling got louder, and the timber wolves stepped closer, he looked down and saw that Fluttershy wasn't there, he looked at the dirt path, and saw that she was running down it, "running, okay, that works" he said as he took off in a sprint, running down the path, the timber wolves ran after him, barking and howling, as some came up to Nathan at the sides, snapping their jaws, at his ankles, he saw a tree root sprouting out of the ground, causing him to trip and fall on his stomach, he groaned as he pushed himself up, he heard the sound of growling coming from behind him, as he rolled himself on to his back, he looked up and saw three timber wolves surrounding him, he looked and saw his gun, just a few inches away, just as the middle wolf began to get into a pouncing position, Nathan quickly reached and grabbed his handgun, and brought it forward, and fired off three bullets as the wolf jumped at him, he watched as the bullets hit their target, and the wolf seemed to break apart into pieces of wood, and scatter everywhere, as he covered his eyes, he heard more growling as another wolf pounced on him, he brought his arms up in defense, placing his arm at the wolf's neck, keeping its face a mere few inches from his, as he struggled against the wolf, he thought he saw something flash in its eyes, to him, it looked like a face of some pony like creature, but he couldn't tell, because he lost his grip, and the wolf pushed past his arm, and sank its teeth into his shoulder, and bit down hard, Nathan screamed in agony, as he felt blood gush from the wound, he looked and saw that the other wolf was getting ready to pounce for his neck.

Nathan looked to the side, and saw his gun there, using his free arm, he tried to get it, but just as he reached for it, he heard a whistle and a growl, he looked up and saw a rock fly and hit the wolf in the head, letting go of his shoulder, and looking up, Nathan followed it's gaze, and saw a familiar orange pony with a cowboy hat on, shoot another rock at the wolf on him, "hey, you big overgrown mutt, over here!" she shouted as she threw one up in the air, and used her back legs to kick it at the wolf, hitting it straight in the head, it growled as it got off of Nathan and began walking towards her, Applejack turned to him, "run!" she shouted as she threw the last two rocks in the air, and bucked them both at the two wolves, Nathan scooted back, clutching his shoulder, he grabbed his handgun and ran the other way, still holding his shoulder, his run wasn't that fast, he saw a light through the tree's up ahead, he realized it was the forest's edge, he tried his best to run faster, he once again tripped on a tree root, and tumbled through the bush and landed outside, landing on his wounded shoulder, he cried out in pain, as he rolled on to his back.

He stayed like that for a little bit, just looking up into the bright blue sky, when none other than Fluttershy and Applejack appeared above him, "oh my gosh, Nathan are you alright?" she asked, he tried sitting up, but cringed as he flexed his shoulder, he looked at the hand clutching the shoulder, it was soaked in blood, his shirt had holes torn through it, and blood soaked.

He breathed heavily, "I'm not sure, ah shit that hurts, one of those damn things nearly chewed my arm off" he said as he stood up, still clutching his shoulder, "we'll take you to Twilight's, she'll probably know what to do with a wound like that, come on" Applejack said as they made their way back to town.

(PonyVille, public library)

Twilight was happily walking around the library humming to herself, as she moved certain books, from shelf to shelf, while waiting for Nathan and Fluttershy to return, but despite trying to ignore it, she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, a feeling something terrible had happened, she got her answer when the front door flew open, and in walked Fluttershy and Applejack, followed by a wounded Nathan, he was clutching his shoulder, which was stained red with blood, her eyes widened as she ran over to him, "oh my gosh! Nathan what happened to you!?" she asked frantic, Nathan slowly leaned against the wall, and held his shoulder, "we ran into a pack of timber wolves in the forest, one of them tackled Nathan and nearly bit his arm off" Applejack said with a worried tone, Nathan slowly slid to the floor, Twilight walked up to him, "let me see" she said, Nathan reluctantly removed his hand, and Twilight placed of hoof on the wound, causing Nathan to cringe heavily, "oww that hurts easy, if it weren't for Applejack, I would probably be dead, they said you might know something that could fix this" he said cringing as he removed his shirt, and throwing it to the side.

Twilight turned to her friends and smiled, "thanks girls, I think I can take care of this from here" she said, Applejack and Fluttershy looked at each other and shrugged before leaving the library, Twilight turned to Nathan, who was breathing heavily, she observed the wound, "we need to clean the wound before it gets infected, I'll get some stuff" she said as she began to move away, but Nathan stopped her, "no, I have some stuff in my bags, just get me a rag" he said as he got up and went down to his room.

Minutes later Nathan sat down on his sleeping bag, he reached into his bag, and found a small med kit, opening it up, he pulled out a bottler of rubbing alcohol and unscrewed the cap, Twilight watched as he poured some of it on the rag, he took a deep breath, and placed the rag on the bite wound, immediately regretting doing so, he closed his eyes hard, tears of pain spilling down his cheeks, as he clenched his teeth hard enough for them to break, he tried his best not to cry out, as the alcohol cleaned the wound of any dirt and bacteria, Twilight watched him and cringed as she could imagine what kind of pain he was feeling.

After a few minutes, Nathan took the rag away, and looked at the shoulder, it was no longer gushing blood, but it still had dried blood, he took another rag out and a bottle of water, that was in his rag, dampening the rag, he slowly began to wipe away the dry blood, Twilight watched as he got out another roll of bandages, but before he could do anything, she stopped him.

"wait, if you want, I could try a new healing spell I learned a few days ago, I'm not entirely sure it will work, but if it does, it will heal both wounds" she said referring to the wound on his side as well, he looked at her and then at his wounds, concern written on his face, "I'm not sure" he said hesitantly, Twilight laughed and stepped closer, "don't you trust me?" she asked, Nathan still hesitated, but slowly turned to face her, removing his hand, she stepped closer, "you may want to close your eyes, it may hurt a bit" she said, Nathan looked into her eyes, but he took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes.

Twilight also took a deep breath, and closed her eyes, as her horn started to light up, she moved her horn, and touched it to Nathan's shoulder wound, causing him to cringe slightly, after a few seconds, she moved her horn to his side, and did the same, once again making him cringe slightly, slowly Twilight backed away, and her horn returned to normal, she opened her eyes, as did Nathan.

Nathan looked at his shoulder, and his eyes widened, the wound had vanished, all that remained was a large light red spot, he slowly began to move his shoulder, there was still a slight amount of pain, but he raised his arm fully up and back down, looking down at his side, he removed the bandage, and was again surprised, the wounds was also gone, a happy smile appeared on his face, and he turned and looked at Twilight, who was also smiling, "wow, your amazing! It feels better already, why didn't you do that before?" he asked, Twilight merely chuckled and shrugged her shoulders, "you didn't ask for my help, but it may still be sore for a day or two" she said with a smile, Nathan reached into his supplies bag, and pulled out a mirror, unaware of the small black box that fell out as well, he happily looked at his side and shoulder in the mirror, he slowly moved to put away the mirror, when the small black box caught his eye, he slowly picked it up and examined it, Twilight looked at it too.

"What is it?" she asked, Nathan didn't seem to know either, "I'm not sure…" he said as he slowly opened it and looked inside, he turned it over and out fell another small box, he picked that up, and turned it over, there lay a small switch and above it a light, that seemed dead, he looked up at Twilight, "it's a distress beacon" he said standing up, and walking around the room, "well, what does it do?" Twilight asked, a curious yet concerned look on her face, Nathan looked at her as he paced around the room, "a distress beacon, sends out a signal, when this switch is flipped, signaling that you're in trouble, the general must have placed this is my bag, before I got into the machine" he said surprised, as he finally stopped.

"that means that they must think I'm dead or in trouble, that's not good" he said, as he slowly got ready to flip it, but Twilight stopped him, "wait, don't flip it, if you do, then they'll think you're in trouble" she said in a concerned tone, Nathan sighed and turned to her, "that's true, yes, but if I don't flip it, I'll never get a chance to go home again, or see my family, my fiancée" he said as he looked at her, Twilight stared back at him, she knew he was right, she sighed deeply and nodded.

Nathan looked down as the switch, and he slowly flipped it upwards, just as he did, the light began to flash red, and start blinking slowly, after he did, Nathan turned to Twilight, "what do we do now?" she asked concerned, he looked at her in a concerned look as well, "now…all we can do is wait" he said in a calm yet serious tone.

(United States, Nevada desert, secret military instillation)

As the progress of the machine was underway, Drake and the General, kept two scientists on watch, for when and if Nathan would activate his beacon, so far nothing had come up, and it felt like nothing would happen.

As the two scientists sat up in the main console room, talking to each other, they both completely ignored their job, when suddenly one of the lights on the console started to flash red, the scientists looked over, as their smiles faded and their eyes widened, "is that what I think it is?" one of them asked, as they leaned in closer, "go get the General and Professor Edwards, tell them what's happened, go now!" he said, and the second one ran out of the room, as he started pressing buttons, and bringing it up on screen, a few minutes later, Drake and the General ran in, just as the first scientist brought it up on screen, a picture of Nathan appeared, followed by his vital signs, which seemed to be in a very steady motion, indicating he was alive, Drake gave a sigh of relief, the General turned to him, "good, we know he's alive, but we still don't know where he is, or what kind of condition he's in, get this machine built and running, you have two weeks" he said as he left the room, but Drake stopped him.

"But General, you said we had unlimited time, we would need to work for hours on end" he said, the General turned to him, a serious look on his face, "yes I did, but each and every hour could make a difference, if we don't get there in time, he could already be dead, get your scientists working" he said as he left the room, Drake turned to the two scientists, "well, you heard him, get down there, and work on the machine" he said, and the two scientist ran out of the room.

Drake watched them go, and then turned to look at the screen, "hang in there, we'll be there so enough, just hold on" he said as he walked out of the room.

**A/N: well, that's it for now, hope you all enjoyed, there will be more chapters to come, and more excitement, thanks again for all the support.**


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: well my friends, I have decided to put the majority of my focus on this story, in order to get it done, so I have written another chapter for all of you, hope you enjoy.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 10: two weeks later**

A full two weeks had passed since Nathan's initial arrival, and things had been going better than he thought, Twilight had taken him through town a number of times, in order to befriend the locals, and help in any way he could, and had gotten to know much of the locals, and had helped Applejack around her farm.

After the incident in the forest he, he decided to subtly study the various ways of life ponies lived, Fluttershy agreed to let him watch her, when she would go and tend to her animals, as well as observe as Rarity made her dresses, including Rainbow Dash allowing him to watch her practice her stunts.

(PonyVille, public library)

"hurry up Twilight, I can't hold this these things forever" Nathan said, as he was holding a bunch of books in on hand, and trying to stay balanced on the ladder, Twilight was taking advantage of Nathan's tallness, by having him rearrange some books on the top shelves, Twilight was looking around, deciding where to put each book, "why am I up here, you have magic, just move it yourself" he argued, as he placed on of the books on the shelves, and jumped down.

Twilight merely giggled, as he landed next to her, "yeah well, you may be from another world and all, but you can't sit around here doing nothing, you got to show your worth, you've been here for two weeks now, stop being lazy" she said as there was a knock on the door, and she walked over to answer it, Nathan rolled his eyes and groaned.

Twilight opened the door, to see none other than her friend Rarity, with a bag over her back, "oh hi, Rarity, we didn't know you were coming over" she said with a happy smiled as she stepped to the side, and Rarity calmly walked in, "sorry darling, but I was just here to drop off Nathan's lab coat" she said as she out her bag down, this caught Nathan's attention as he walked over.

They watched as she levitated it out of her bag, and gave it to him, he smiled as he looked at it closely, "wow, I had completely forgotten about this, thanks Rarity, it looks brand new" he said as he slowly began to pull it over his shoulders, Rarity smiled, "well, I do take pride in my work" she said in a slightly arrogant tone, Nathan fully brought it over his shoulders, and looked at it, Twilight watched him admire it, "well, now you look like a real scientist" she said with a laugh.

Not long after, Spike came into the room, with a tray of tea on it, "oh Rarity, Spike just made some tea, you want to stay?" Twilight asked, Rarity shook her head, "sorry Twilight, but I need to get back to my shop, this is about the time stallion and mares, start bringing in their suits and dresses for the Grand Galloping Gala, so I'll need to get busy, I'll see you later" she said as she walked out the door, Twilight closing it behind her.

"Grand Galloping Gala?" Nathan asked confused, Twilight smiled, "it's hard to explain, it's a very formal affair, held in Canterlot Castle, and it's really fun, music and dancing" she said in a bit of a dreamy state, as Spike walked in again, with a tray of sandwiches, they all took one and ate it, "oh, what I wouldn't give for a steak dinner right about now" Nathan said quietly to himself, "what was that?" Twilight asked confused, Nathan blushed slightly and swallowed nervously, "oh, nothing" he said, just as he did, suddenly Spike's cheeks puffed up, and out came a burst of flames, and appeared a white scroll, with a royal seal on it, "it's a letter from Princess Celestia" Twilight said as she levitated it up to read, "how did he do that, did he just burp out a letter?" Nathan asked confused and shocked, a dumbfounded look on his face, Twilight looked up at him confused, "yeah, that's how she sends me letters" she said turning to the letter and started reading it, leaving Nathan completely confused, "oh yeah, that makes perfect sense" he said in a sarcastic tone.

As Twilight read, her eyes widened, leaving both Nathan and Spike confused, "everything okay Twilight?" Spike asked, she turned to look at him, and then up at Nathan, "she's…she's going to be coming to PonyVille, for a royal visit, the day after tomorrow, we need to get ready, she says she will be checking on your progress" she said in a slightly panicked tone, Nathan looked down at Spike, "well, there isn't much progress that I could have made, the only thing I've done, is activate my distress beacon, they pretty much have to come and get me" he said in a worried tone.

Twilight thought for a moment, and paced around the room, Nathan and Spike watched her until she sighed, "all we can do now, is set up a little welcoming party, for when she arrives, come on, we need to go tell the girls" she said as she made her way to the door, Nathan sighed and quickly followed her.

(Later that night…)

After running around town for the majority of the day, telling their friends about Princess Celestia's visit, they returned home, to get a good night's sleep, so they could work on making the library presentable, Twilight had already gone up to bed, but Nathan was sitting on his sleeping bag, rummaging through his bag, he sighed heavily as he pulled out the recorder, pulling out the current tape, and putting in a new one, he brought it up to his mouth and hit the record button.

"This is the audio log of Professor Nathan Richards; currently I have not made any progress on my secondary objective of finding a way home, progress has been slow, also, the ruler of this land will be arriving in a day's time, I can't help but feel, that there is something bad coming, I can't explain it, in any matter, I will continue with my primary mission, until such time that I can contact home" he said before releasing the button, he pushed it aside and got into his sleeping bag, pulling it over him, he looked to his side, and saw the picture of him and his fiancée, he once again felt a tear fall down his cheek, "not a day goes by where I'm not thinking of you" he said as he wiped the tear away, and slowly closed his eyes, hoping to get a good night's sleep.

But it didn't go like he thought.

(Nathan's dream)

Nathan's eyes shot open, and he found himself looking up into the night sky, the stars shined brightly overhead, he looked around, he felt was he thought was grass, rub against the back on his neck, he lifted his head and looked around, much to his surprise, he found himself in what appeared to be the clearing of a forest.

He sat up and looked around, "what in the hell…" he said as he stood up and began looking around, there appeared to be no signs of life in any direction, "how did I get here?" he asked loudly, mostly talking to himself, the last thing he remembered was falling asleep in the library's spare room, "hello, is anybody there?!" he shouted into the forest, but got no answer, he put his hand in his pocket, and felt a metallic bulge, he pulled it out, and was shocked to see that he was carrying his handgun with him, "what the…?" he asked quietly, but stopped when he heard something move through the trees behind him, he snapped around gun at the ready, only to see nothing, only to hear it again at his side, and again at his back, "who's there!?" he shouted, pointing his gun at a clearing of bushes'.

He waited for another sound, to try and help him identify what was out there, but he wasn't greeted by a sound, this time, he heard a blood-chilling laugh come from the tree line, he watched and waited, but instead of a figure coming out, he started seeing, what appeared to be black smoke, creeping out from the tree line, Nathan felt his entire body shake, and the hair on the back of his neck stand up, but he tried to mask it, "who's there? Come on out, show your face you coward!" he yelled, only to be greeted by another laugh, and a deep mysterious voice.

"A coward you say? Oh I am no coward, but neither are you" the voice said, as a pair of glowing scarlet eyes, looking at him through the fog, Nathan felt his blood run cold, "who are you, and what do you want?" Nathan asked, there was no reply, as the eyes seemed to come closer, and soon a form shaped, and out walked a taller unicorn pony, eyes glowing green and red, with a sort of purple aura coming off them, he appeared to be wearing a crown, armor set, and royal cloak, he merely smiled at Nathan, showing very sharp teeth.

Nathan took a step back; he had heard the common scary stories as a kid, and was scared of them, this thing seemed to be the very incarnation of a child's worst fears, Nathan found himself unable to speak, "if you must know, I am King Sombra, the master of shadows, and what I want is you" he said in a calm tone, Nathan felt his hand trembling, as he tried to keep the gun focused, Sombra saw this and laughed, "you needn't be afraid of me, I'm not here to harm you, Professor Nathan Richards" he said with a slight hint of mockery in his voice, Nathan appeared shocked.

"How…how do you know my name?" he asked, Sombra laughed again, "oh please, I know everything about you, your hopes, yours dreams, yours fears, but that's not important, I've been keeping an eye on you, I know what you really are, you see, here, your nothing more than fish out of water" he said, despite that Nathan still felt that something was wrong, "what is this place, how did I get here?" he asked, the King merely stared at him and smiled, "I brought you here, this is nothing more than a dream, like I said, what I want is you" he said as he took a step closer, causing Nathan to raise the gun up and point it at him, Sombra burst out laughing, "ha, do you really think, your little human weapon can harm me!?" he said, with a laugh.

Nathan looked at him, thinking he was bluffing but the look in his eyes, told him he was serious, "what do you want with me?" Nathan asked, still having the gun raised up, Sombra merely smiled, "I want to help you" he said simply, Nathan felt a laugh come up, he chuckled, "how can you possibly help me?" he asked with fake bravery, Sombra just continued smiling, "I can help you return home, to your family, to your fiancée" he said with an evil grin, Nathan's eyes widened in surprise.

"How…how can you possibly do that, and how do you even know about that!?" Nathan shouted, Sombra just let out a light chuckle, "I already told you before, I know everything about you, I know you want nothing more than to return home, to your beloved fiancée, how is not important right now, all I ask is for you to help me" he said in a sinister tone.

Nathan slowly lowered the gun, but still kept it at the ready, "what kind of help are we talking about here?" he asked, Sombra's smile widened, as he slowly began to walk around Nathan, who kept watching him with a nervous look, "I'm not sure if you have been told this, but I was once a king, a real king, of the Crystal Empire, but I was dethroned, by their beloved Princess Celestia and Luna, turned to shadow and banished to the artic north, for over a thousand years I waited, and when the empire returned, so did I, but before I could return to power, I was defeated, and now those foolish Princess's, have sent their niece and her husband to rule over it, but no longer, all I ask, I for you to help me, regain my rightful throne, and rule as a king, you see, I have a plan for this Kingdom, soon after the Empire, I will conquer all of Equestria, and then this entire world" he said laughing loudly, Nathan felt his grip tighten.

"That sounds more like an invasion plan, Twilight already told me about you, your nothing but a tyrant! You enslaved the Crystal Ponies, tortured them, forced them to work, that's not what a real leader does, a real leader takes care of their followers, not enslave them, thanks but no thanks" Nathan said standing firm, and raising the gun again, Sombra frowned for a minute, but then he looked down and a wide smile spread across his face, "well, it seems your rather hard to convince, for a human, you show true signs of bravery and honor, if that doesn't interest you, then perhaps this will" he said as he stopped for a moment, Nathan waited for him to continue.

"as I said before, I know everything about you, your entire life, I even know…about your brother…" he said with a sinister smile, Nathan's eyes widened as he nearly dropped the gun, he felt speechless, which only amused Sombra, "oh yes, I know how he died, he was a true hero, it was a very tragic experience for your family, you may not know this, but in this world, there are many powerful types of magic, especially dark magic, far more powerful, able to produce some spells that defy nature, what if I told you, that if you helped me…I could bring your brother back" he said with a smile.

Nathan's eyes went wide, and his hands fell, he felt his heart beat against his chest, "tha-that's…that's impossible, my brother's dead, you can't bring people back from the dead!" he shouted angrily, Sombra merely smiled, "maybe in your world you can't, but here, I know of a spell, that could bring him back from the grave, just as he was" he said as his horn started to glow are very dark color, and a bright flash happened, causing Nathan to cover his eyes, when the flash ended, he looked back and saw that Sombra was gone, he looked all around him, but saw no sign of him.

Just as he thought he was gone, he moved to put the gun away, but just as he did, he heard footsteps on the grass, he slowly moved to bring the gun out, but was stopped by a voice, "what the king says is true…little bro" the voice said, Nathan felt his heart nearly break out of his chest, he knew who that voice belonged to, he slowly turned around, and saw the one person he thought was dead.

There, standing behind him, was none other than his older brother, James, dressed in his military uniform, smiling at him, Nathan nearly dropped the gun, "j-j-James?" Nathan said slowly, his brother just smiled at him, "yeah, it's me little bro, it's been quite some time, man you've grown, I bet you beat up on Jake now" he said with an amused smile, as he slowly started walking towards him, Nathan snapped out of his trance like state, and raised the gun up, "don't you dare take another step!" Nathan yelled, aiming the gun at his brother, who had a shocked look on his face, he looked up at him, and smiled again, "come on now, Nathan, are you really going to shoot your older brother?" he said raising his hands in a defensive position, Nathan could feel the conflict in his head, it was his older brother, but he knew it couldn't be possible.

"It's not possible, you're dead James, and you died of blood loss, we…we saw your body, we were at your funeral, we buried you, so what the hell are you?" Nathan demanded, his brother looked from the gun up to him, and smiled again, "what does it look like, I'm your oldest brother, James Richards, born in southern California, in the year 1985, as for being dead, maybe back on earth, but not here, the king has a chance to bring me back for good, and you would turn it down, your own brother, your own flesh and blood, the time is coming to pick a side, I hope you pick the right one" he said, Nathan looked away for a minute, and then looked back, only to see that James was gone, he looked all around, but there was no trace even there.

Just as he put the gun down, he heard Sombra's voice echo through the trees, "the choice is yours Nathan Richards, the time is coming, choose wisely" he said, as he heard laughing echo off into the trees.

(Reality)

Nathan shot up; his heart pounding against his chest, sweat ran down his face and chest, he looked around and saw he was back in the spare room at Twilight's house, he turned on the light and looked around, and everything seemed normal, he felt his heart begin to slow, and he got control of his breathing again, the memories of the dream still haunted him, he looked at the clock, and it read past midnight, he slowly leaned back down, wiping the sweat from his face, he did his best to close his eyes again, and fall asleep, but still afraid of having another nightmare.

**A/N: well, that's another chapter done, and a pretty interesting one at that, hope you all enjoyed, because it's only going to get better, tune in next time, and peace.**


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N: well guys, I'm back with another chapter for this story, and like I said before, I'm grateful for all the positive feedback, and I promise for this story to go out with a bang, so enjoy this chapter, and watch as things get more interesting.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 11: a royal visit**

(United States, Nevada desert, secret military installation)

The two weeks had passed since the reconstruction of the machine had started, and much to their surprise, the machine was fully rebuilt, and included a much larger chamber, enough to fit multiple people, during the two weeks, the General had gone around recruiting the best of the best to assemble into a response team, and they were immediately flown out to the base, where they were briefed on the mission.

The General calmly walked into the room, dressed in combat gear, he looked around and saw all the other soldiers, putting their gear on, he turned and saw Drake, struggling to put his gear on, he merely sighed and walked over to him.

As Drake tied his boots on, he heard someone in front of him clear his throat, he looked up and saw the General looking down at him, he sighed and stood up, and started putting on his bullet proof jacket, "Drake, this is no mission for a scientist, you can trust me to bring him back alive" he said, as he watched slightly amused as Drake's inability to fasten his vest, "I already told you General, you can't change my mind, he's my best friend, I'm not going to let him die in some strange land, I'm getting him out of there, by any means necessary" he said, the General looked at him for a minute, and smiled.

"very well then, but I am still in charge of the mission, you listen to my orders, like any of these soldiers" he said as he helped him fasten his vest, Drake nodded as he picked up his M16 assault rifle, and followed the General to the front of the machine, he turned and cleared his throat, and waited as all the other soldiers turned to him.

"alright men, you know the mission objective, were going to rescue our lost friend, now a few things before we go, this world in entirely new to us, we have no idea what could be waiting for us, we must all remain alert, the inhabitants of this world might be hostile, your ammo is going to be limited, you've been equipped with both live and stun rounds, when we arrive, we'll find a suitable spot to make camp, watch your every move, and stay alert, god knows what's waiting for us on the other side, from what Professor Edwards tells me, the air of this world might be toxic, so make sure your oxygen masks are fully prepared, let's do this, let's make our country proud" he said as he put on his helmet, and put on his mask, followed by every other soldiers, including Drake, he looked up at the observation deck, and brought his hand up to the headset, and pressed the button.

"alright, open the doors, set the calculations as they were the first time" he said, a few seconds past and they all heard a loud hissing sound, and turned to see the doors opened, they all quickly made their way inside, the General and drake walked in, accompanied by the eight soldiers they had with them, equipped with their assault rifles.

They waited as the door closed behind, and waited for the main event.

Up in the observation room, the scientists all watched as the doors closed, "alright boys and girls, fasten your seatbelts, this might get crazy, input the calculations, initiate start sequence, and apply max power" the lead scientist said as the other scientists started typing keys on the computer, they heard a low humming sound start to rise, as the chamber began to become filled with light, he looked at the power levels, "all scientists clear the lab, I repeat clear the lab!" he said over the comm system, they watched as all the scientists cleared the room below, "close blast doors and windows" he said, as heavy metal plates slid over the windows, eliminating their view of the testing floor, "put it on screen" he said as the view of the room came on, the chamber was now filled with light, as the humming grew louder, to the point where the room was starting to shake.

Soon it came to the point, where they couldn't even see the outline of the soldiers, soon they heard a loud screech, as the room slowly started to die down, and the computer screen went fuzzy, after a few minutes, the rumbling died away, and the humming went away, they waited for a few minutes, "okay, open the doors" he said, the scientists typed a few keys and the large metal plates slid away.

They all looked down, and much to their surprise, the room was well intact, the machine was still there, but to their surprise, relief, and confusion, the soldiers were gone, nothing but empty space.

(Unknown location)

The last thing Drake recalled was a loud screech and then it all went black, after that, he slowly opened his eyes, and found himself staring across a length of green grass, he tried to push himself up, but only managed to get into a crawling position, he waited for his vision to return, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked up and saw the General looking down at him, "you all right Edwards" he said as he lifted him up, he groaned as he stretched, and picked up his weapon, he looked around and saw that all the other soldiers were there with them.

He looked at their surroundings, and saw their were in some clearing of what appeared to be a forest, "where are we?" he asked, the General pulled out his locator, and frowned, "I'm not sure, this things can't get a location, I guess that means were not on earth anymore" he said as they all looked around, Drake pulled out his device, to check the quality of the air, "well, this thing says the air's clean, it's just like the air on earth, it's oxygen filled, guess we don't need these" he said taking off his oxygen mask, and taking a deep breath, and waited for something to happen, after a few seconds nothing happened, and he signaled the others to remove theirs.

"Is there any way to locate Nathan?" Drake asked, the General pulled out the locator, and put in Nathan's signal, "well, it still shows he's alive, he was here, but not anymore, not at least for a week's time, but I am picking up his distress signal, apparently he's not too far, from what I can tell, were in some sort of forest, and when there's a forest, there's dangerous animals in it" he said as he looked across the tree line, Drake began to grow impatient, "well, what are we waiting for, let's go get him" he said as he took a step forward, but the General put a hand on his chest.

"Drake, listen to me, I know your eager to find him, but we need to think rationally about this, we have no idea what's in those woods, we can camp here, scout the area, we have no idea what condition he's in, we'll wait until tomorrow to start heading in his direction, nightfall is coming, get a camp fire going" he said, mainly to the men, Drake knew he was right, but he still wanted to find Nathan.

As much as he denied it, he knew he would have to wait a little longer.

(PonyVille, the next day)

Out in a field, just outside of the town, Twilight and all her friends stood waiting for the Princess's arrival, Nathan stood with them, watching the sky for her, "so wait, tell me again, how she usually get here" Nathan asked, Twilight sighed and looked up at him, "I told you, she usually comes on a chariot, pulled by Pegasus guards" she said, Nathan rolled his eyes, "there she is!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed excitedly, as they all looked up and saw a chariot flying through the air, with a familiar looking tall, white pony, on it, they waited as she landed in front of them, she smiled widely as she got off, and Twilight walked up, "Twilight, it's good to see you again, how are things here?" she asked with a smile, Twilight merely smiled up at her, "it's been great, it's been really exciting with Nathan here" she said smiling at him, Celestia chuckled, and walked to Nathan.

"And I trust, you've made yourself comfortable, Professor Richards?" she asked, Nathan smiled and gave a bow, "just Nathan is fine, and yes, it's been a very interesting past few weeks, your land is an amazing place to be" he said with a big smile, Celestia smiled back, "well, thank you, I'm sure it will be interesting, to learn of your discoveries" she said as they all started making their way back to the library.

(PonyVille, public library)

After returning back to the library, they all sat down and started talking, while Spike came in with a tray full of daisy sandwiches and a pot of hot tea, Nathan began telling Princess Celestia about all the things he learned, about the incredible similarities of their world and his, but Celestia was more interested about his progress of returning home, after Nathan finished telling his story, she took a sip of her tea and placed her cup down.

"This is all very interesting Nathan, but tell me this, what have you done in the way of returning home?" she asked, and a confused look came to Nathan's face, he looked down at Twilight, which looked up at him, with a worried look, he turned to look back at the Princess, "well, I um, I haven't been able to do much, the only way I could get home, was to activate my distress beacon, and wait for them to come and find me, that is if they could rebuild the machine" he said looking at her, the Princess looked surprised, but then an uneasy look appeared on her face, "your saying that the beacon you activated will let them know where you are, and prompt them to come here, looking for you" she said slowly, narrowing her eyes, Nathan swallowed, and simply nodded his head.

Celestia looked down for a minute, thinking to herself, and then looked up at Nathan, "when did you activate this beacon?" she asked, staring at him, Nathan looked at twilight for help, but she simple shrugged her shoulders, "roughly two weeks ago" he said in a nervous tone, as Celestia stood up and stared down at him, "I don't recall allowing you to bring more of your kind here" she said with a hint of anger in her voice, Nathan stood up as well as the others, Nathan could feel his heart beating against his chest, "with all due respect your highness, but it's the only way that I can return home, I can't stay here the rest of my life, I have a family back home, I have a fiancée that I plan on marrying soon, if they come, all they want is me, I can assure you of that" he said in a panicked tone, Celestia looked at him, studying his face, she sighed, and was about to speak, when the front door flew open, and in walked Shining Armor, with two other guards.

"Shining Armor, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked, he glanced at her but didn't answer, as he walked up to Celestia, "my apologies for interrupting, but I have some important news" he said, the Princess sighed and turned to him, "yes Shining Armor?" she asked, waiting for him to talk, "one of our scouts has spotted a large group of what appears to be more humans in a clearing in the forest, unfortunately the spy couldn't get close enough, but he counted ten total, and from what he said they appear to armed with weapons" he said, a shock look appeared on Nathan's and the Princess's face, as Nathan felt his heart beat faster.

"What? There are more humans, where are they?" Nathan asked in a panic, but before Shining Armor could answer, he was cut off by the Princess, "it matters not, inform the nearest royal guard base, tell them to get an airship ready, we must confront this, before it becomes a threat" she said as they started making their way to the door, Nathan took a step forward, "wait, let me come with you" he said, but Celestia turned to him sharply, "no, if what you say is true, and these humans are only here for you, then there should be no problems, wait here with Twilight and her friends, while we take care of this" she said as she left the library, and climbed into her chariot, that was now waiting out front, Nathan and the others watched as the carriage took off.

As he watched them go, Nathan had the feeling that something bad was going to come of this, "this isn't going to end well, not one bit" he said as he watched the chariot disappear into the clouds.

**A/N: well that's it for now, I know this chapter was shorter than the last few, but it will pick up again, that I promise, so stay tuned for more, peace.**


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N: sorry about the lack of updates, but I was busy at the time, but I'm back and here to bring you yet another chapter for this story, and I will say this, it's going to get really interesting, as we are growing closer to the end of the story, hope you enjoy.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 12: new arrivals**

After being left by the Princess and Shining Armor, Nathan was pacing back and forth in the library, Twilight and her friends were watching him with concerned looks, Nathan had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, he knew it wouldn't end well if they confronted them without him.

"this isn't a good idea, Princess Celestia has no idea what she's walking into, we have to go there Twilight" Nathan said turning to her, Nathan looked at all her friends with a concerned look, they just stared back at her, she turned to Nathan and sighed, "Nathan we can't, the Princess told us to stay here, and that's what we need to do, she can take care of this" she said in a confident tone, Nathan frowned at her.

"Twilight you don't understand, they're here looking for me, the distress signal I sent out, was only meant for an emergency, they're probably stocked with plenty of human weapons, if Shining Armor and the Princess confront them first, my friends will believe that I'm in danger, and kill them, we have to go there and stop them, or else it will be too late" he said looking at her with pleading eyes, Twilight looked away for a minute, thinking heavily, until she finally took a deep breath and turned to him and nodded.

Nathan gave a huge sigh of relief, "alright, I'll teleport us as close as I can, if I go to close, Princess Celestia will be able to sense it" she said as they all gathered together and Twilight closed her as her horn started to glow, and in a bright flash they were gone.

(Everfree forest, temporary camp)

A day had passed since the soldiers had arrived in the mysterious new world, soon after they arrived; they set up camp in the forest clearing, with tents and small campfires, while some of the soldiers kept an eye on their radar, which would reveal any signs of life , coming towards them, but so far, they saw nothing.

Drake sat in his tent, loading a clip into his rifle, he knew he could trust the general to bring Nathan home alive, but he still felt he needed to be there to bring him back; he smiled as he remembered the first day they met, when they were still in elementary school.

(Flashback) 21 years ago

Drake was sitting alone at the school playground, watching the others kids playing tag, jump rope, and other forms of activity, but for him today consisted as any other, leaning against the wall, watching the others playing ball, he never had many friends, considering that most of them called him a freak, or a loser.

As he watched the others play, he noticed a group of older kids walk up to him, they didn't seem to happy, "hey look guys, it's the loner kid Drake" they said to him and the others burst out laughing, Drake just continued to lean against the wall, attempting to ignore them, but his methods only worked for so long, "hey! I'm talking to you loser, look at me, when I'm talking to you!" the middle one yelled, Drake finally turned to face them, but kept his head down slightly, they smiled as the middle one walked up to him and shoved his shoulder, "ooh, what are you going to do about it, if only you had some friends of your own, maybe they could help you, oh right, you don't!" they said as they all laughed again, the two others, Drake's hand slowly balled into fists.

"Hey! Why don't you leave me alone? Go pick on someone your own size" he said in an angry tone, the other kids merely smiled, "oh, see he can actually talk, he must be intelligent, in case you didn't know, I'm the biggest kid here, I can talk to anyone anyway I want!" he said as he quickly punched Drake in the face, and sent him to the ground, Drake landed on the concrete with a painful thud, as the bigger kid flipped him around, and kicked him in the stomach, time seemed to slow as he felt the blow, all he could hear were to other two kids laughing, but then a different sound came into hearing, "hey, you three stop that right now!" came a much older voice, as two teachers appeared and pried the big one off him, while another shadow appeared above him, it was a boy about his age.

He reached out his hand, in a friendly gesture, Drake hesitantly took it, and allowed himself to be helped up, he turned to the younger kid, who was smiling at him, "you okay?" he asked, Drake looked at him but nodded, "glad the teachers got here before any real damage was done" he said as they watched the teachers scolding the older boy and walk him off to the principal's office, "thanks, if you didn't get the teacher's, I don't know what might happen" he said as he smiled back, and rubbed the blood from his nose, the other kid extended out his hand, "my name's Nathan" he said smiling, Drake hesitantly shook it, "Drake" he said simply, as they walked off in the direction of the nurse's office.

(Flashback end)

Drake smiled at the memory, as he loaded the clip, he recalled all the good times they had, through their school years, college, and then them both getting recruited by the government to work on the machine, he finally decided to step out and get some air.

As he came out, he saw all the soldiers going about their business cleaning their rifles, counting their magazines, of just simply talking, he walked up to where the General was, as he looked over what appeared to be a map of the area, even though they had no idea of where they were, they assumed that the forest was big, and that Nathan was probably somewhere on the other side of the forest.

"General Marcus, Edwards is here" one of the soldiers said, the General looked up and sighed, "Drake, I already told you, we will move out soon, and we will find him alive" he said, Drake was about to speak up, when one of the other soldiers ran up to them, "sir, sorry for interrupting, but were getting a reading, something's coming from the trees, and heading straight for us" he said, the General looked at Drake, nodded and grabbed his rifle as they all made their way out of the small circle of tents, and waited near the edge of the tree line, rifles at the ready.

"Where is it Corporal?" the General asked, the soldier took out his radar, "should be emerging any second" he said as he put it away and aimed his rifle, "is it Richards?" he asked again, the Corporal shook his head, "no sir, it's not reading as Richards, or anything human" he said as they started hearing what appeared to be footsteps, "alright, we fire on my command, and mine alone, let's see what it is first" he said, as an outline started emerging, and much to their surprise, a pony dressed in armor, walked out of the tree line, it's head was down, but from what they could tell, it had a pure white coat, and a blue mane, it suddenly stopped and looked up at them, from what they could tell, it didn't seem to happy.

All the soldiers looked at each other with confused looks, but still kept their rifles aimed at it, "um general, what is that thing?" Drake asked leaning over slightly, the General didn't answer, but merely shrugged his shoulders, the air feel silent as the soldiers and the mysterious creature stared each other down, "it appears to be a pony, but why is it dressed up in armor, and it has what looks to be a horn" he said as they all fell silent again, they watched as the pony opened its mouth, "you are in the kingdom of Equestria, by order of her highness Princess Celestia, you are hereby ordered to surrender any weapons, before going further" he said in a firm tone, all the soldier's back away slightly in chock, but kept their rifles steady, Drake felt his mouth drop, as he leaned up to the general once again, "um…did that pony just talk to us, and in English too?" he asked completely confused, just as the pony began talking again.

"Perhaps you aren't as intelligent as your friend, you won't get passed me with your weapons" he said as his voice began to rise, with a hint of anger to his voice, the soldiers all looked at each other in confusion, having no idea of what to do, they all just waited for their orders, Drake heard what he said about their 'friend' and assumed it was Nathan, "you know where Nathan is, where is he, what did you do to him" he said stepping forward, but the General stopped him, "I'll handle this" he said quietly to him, and Drake backed up, as the General kept his gun at the ready.

He turned back to the pony, "I don't know who or what you think you are, but I am a General in the United States army, you probably aren't as high of rank, even in this world" he said in a challenging tone, all the soldier's looked at him in confusion, as the pony merely smiled at him, "my name is Shining Armor, Captain of the Canterlot royal guard, and prince of the Crystal Empire, husband to Princess Cadence" he said with a smirk, the General frowned at this, and raised the gun, "regardless of that, I'm not taking orders from a talking mutated horse" he said, as Shining Armor smiled, "you seem to believe that I was giving you a choice" he said, as he lifted his hoof up and whistled loudly.

Mere seconds passed as they heard the sounds of wings flapping, and shadows pass above them, they watched as another pony dressed in armor landed to their right, and then the left, then behind, and soon all sorts of them landed around them, forming a circle, followed by bright flashes, and more appearing, soon they found themselves completely surrounded by ponies on all sides, and they seemed to be armed with crossbows, they turned and saw the captain with a wide smirk on his face, Drake slowly leaned in to the General once again, "um sir, maybe you shouldn't have pissed it off, I think were outnumbered" he said looking around, before the General could respond, a bright flash appeared next to the Captain, as a much taller pony with wings and a horn appeared next to him, her coat was pure white as well, and her mane appeared to be rainbow colored and flowing in the wind, her face was calm, yet serious.

"I am Princess Celestia, the ruler of this land, I hereby order you to surrender your weapons and come quietly" she said in a firm tone, all the soldiers had their guns pointed in different directions, as the air became thick with anticipation, as the General thought of their next move, he leaned over to Drake and told him the plan, "okay, on the count of three, I'll kill the tall one, and you and the soldiers kill the others, and then we make a break for it, into the forest" he said as he steadied his gun, "one…" he said quietly as he targeted the taller one, who merely narrowed her eyes, "two…" he said as he felt sweat trickle down his face and neck, as he slowly began to squeeze the trigger on the rifle.

Just as he was about to say 'three', they heard something else run into the clearing, "Wait! Wait! Stop!" said a familiar sounding voice, as they all turned; they saw none other than Nathan run out of the forest, a panicked look on his face, the General felt a wave of relief wash over him at seeing him, but then became confused, as he ran in front of the taller pony, and spread his arms out in a defensive manner, and faced him, a serious look on his face.

"General, tell your men to stand down now" he said firmly, the General hesitated, why would Nathan be protecting these things, "Richards! You're with them? What the hell is going on here!?" he yelled, Nathan slowly moved his hands in front in a defensive position, "General, I can explain, tell your men to lower their weapons, and I can explain all this, you've been looking for me, here I am, I'm fine see, do I look injured in anyway, just lower your weapons" he said gesturing for him to do so, the General hesitated, and Nathan could see the look in his eyes, "General…if you're going to shoot her, you'll have to shoot through me" he said in a confident tone, the General thought it over, and looked at the seriousness in Nathan's eyes, "stand down!" he shouted and lowered his weapon, as did the other soldiers.

Nathan looked back at Shining Armor, who still had a nervous look on his face, "Shining Armor…please" he simply said, Shining looked up at the Princess, she turned to him and merely nodded, Shining Armor brought his hoof up to his ear, "alright, stand down, no need for action here" he said into the headset, as the pony soldiers lowered their crossbows, Nathan gave him a silent thank you, and turned around to face the Princess, who simply smiled at him, "I'm sorry you highness, but it was the only way" he said in a kind tone, she sighed and smiled at him, "I know, and thank you, had you not come, things might have gotten ugly" she said with a smile, Nathan smiled back, and turned around, only to be met with a punch in the face, he cried out in pain, and rubbed his chin, he looked and saw his best friend standing in front of him, "oww! What was that for?" he asked rubbing his chin, Drake felt a tear run down his cheek, "you stupid son of a bitch, I thought you were dead" he said as he helped him up, Nathan still rubbing his chin, making sure it was intact.

They both turned and saw the General walk up to him, and get close, looking at all the talking ponies around him, an uneasy look on his face, "you better have one damn good explanation for all this" he said in a quiet tone, Nathan nodded, "I know, I'll tell you everything, just not here, we need to go before it gets dark" he said as he walked back over to the Princess, "with all due respect, we could take them to the castle, I can promise they won't do any harm, I'll tell them everything" he said, Princess Celestia thought for a moment, looked back at them, and then back at Nathan, "very well, take them to the PonyVille train station, I shall return to the castle and make preparations for our new…guests" she said as her horn glowed and flashed, and then she was gone, leaving all of Nathan's friends shocked and confused, "did she just…?" one of the soldiers asked, "like I said, I'll explain later, when we return to the castle" he said as he walked past them, "castle?" Drake asked, but followed him back into the camp.

(Later that day…)

After their interesting introduction, Shining Armor agreed to lead them through the forest, and back to PonyVille, so that they would be able to take a train back to Canterlot, as they walked along the dirt path that lead out of the forest, the human soldiers kept their guns at the ready, watching the forest for any signs of a threat, Nathan and Drake walked next to each other.

"yikes, this place gives me the creeps" Drake said as they walked along the path, Nathan chuckled lightly, "yeah, I came out here to do some research, and nearly got my arm chewed off by a timber wolf pack" he said with a chuckle, he turned to see the shocked look on his friends face, "wait, you got attacked by real furry wolves?" he asked in confusion, Nathan looked at him, rubbing the back of his head, "not quite, you see, they were literally wolves made out of timber wood" he said with a amused look, as Drake's jaw dropped, and they continued walking.

Suddenly Nathan got the pressing need to ask Drake a specific question, "so…how's my family, what about Abigail?" he asked in a concerned tone, Drake sighed sadly, "not so good, when we told them about the incident, they didn't seem to happy, your family's a mess man, and Abigail…she tried her best to hold back tears, but you could see the look in her eyes, she's completely heartbroken, your one lucky guy, to have a girl that loves you that much" he said, as Nathan looked away sadly, Drake put and arm around his shoulder, "but don't worry, we'll get you back home, soon as we can find a way out of this place" he said as they came to the edge of the forest, and they all looked up at the bright blue sky.

Nathan took a step forward, and turned to face them, a broad smile on his face, "well boys, welcome to PonyVille" he said with a smile as all their mouths dropped, only making him laugh, the General took off his helmet and shaded his eyes, a shocked look appeared on his face, "this is beyond anything we ever expected, a whole world as advanced as this, it's incredible" he said as Twilight walked up to Nathan, "alright, we'll go around the town as to not attract attention" she said as they started making their way towards the train station.

As they arrived, Shining walked up to the ticket booth and told them to rent out an entire car for the ride to Canterlot, giving him an official signed letter from Princess Celestia, he quickly took it and moved them on to a train, Nathan couldn't help but laugh at the soldier's shocked face's, "they even have trains? How advanced are they?" the General asked, Nathan merely laughed, "that's nothing, but to tell you the truth, I had the same exact reactions when I first saw all of this" he said as they boarded the train.

As they took their seats, the train set into motion and quickly carried them off to the capital city of Canterlot, where they would meet with the Princess's and plan their next move.

**A/N: well there you have it, that's it for the time being, but don't think the excitement stops here, it only gets better, tune in next time to see how, peace.**


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N: well here we are guys, nearing the end of the story, how could it get more interesting, you'll just have to read and find out, hope you enjoy.**

**Wonders of science: chapter 13: decisions and confusion**

After they arrived at the capitol city, the General and the other soldiers were completely amazed at what they saw, the city was stunning, more than they could have ever thought, after leaving the train, Shining Armor boarded the next train back to the Crystal Empire, while the others were escorted up to the castle, to talk with the Princess's.

As they walked through the streets, Nathan watched in amusement, as the soldiers all looked around at the city around them, knowing they had never before seen sites like this, they continued walking, escorted by royal guards up to the castle, the soldiers had slung their weapons over their shoulders, and after walking for what seemed like a long time, they finally found themselves crossing a giant drawbridge, into the courtyard of a large castle, where they saw a smaller pony with a deep blue coat and a flowing blue mane, standing waiting for them.

As they walked up, Twilight stepped forward, "Princess Luna, it's good to see you again" she said walking up to her and taking a bow, Luna smiled at her, "indeed, it is good to see you again as well Twilight, my sister is waiting in the throne room to meet your friends, please follow me" she said as she started making her way into the castle, and the others quickly followed.

(Canterlot castle, outside the throne room)

Walking through the large halls, Drake and the General looked at the beautiful stained glass windows, and the spectacular architecture of the castle, Nathan just smiled down at Twilight, who shared his amused look, after a few minutes they came across the large door that lead to the throne room, they watched as Princess Luna stopped and turned to them, "before you enter, my sister requests that you surrender your weapons" she said in a calm tone, an uneasy look appeared on the General's face, Nathan looked back at him, "just do it" he said, the General thought for a moment, and nodded back to his men, and they slowly started to take off their weapons and ammo belts, and give them to the royal guards, who calmly placed them in cases and walked off.

"they shall be returned to you, when you leave" she said as she turned around and opened the door with her magic, and walked in, as they walked in, all the soldiers stared in amazement at the beautiful design of the room, they all looked forward to see a familiar tall pony talking with a member of the royal guard, "…send some additional troops, and find the source of the problem" she said, and the guard saluted and walked out of the room, she turned to them and smiled, "ah you're here, I trust you found the train ride good" she said as they walked up to her, Nathan smiled as he took a step forward.

"I believe that we never really got the chance to do an official introduction, Princess Celestia may I introduce my best friend Drake, I've known him since I was little, and this is General Jack Marcus of the United States Army" he said in a calm tone as they walked up, and gave a bow, Celestia smiled kindly, "it's a pleasure to meet you both, you and your soldiers, I must apologize for our earlier confrontation, but we needed to make sure that no harm was done, with your weapons" she said with a smile, the General did his best to smile at her, "the fault is ours, we simply came here for our friend, we only brought weapons with us, in case we came across any threats, but it looks like we were wrong, and might I say, your kingdom is beautiful, a true sight to behold" he said in a kind manner, Celestia just smiled, "well thank you, General, I'm sure you are all hungry from your journey, and though our food here is quite different from the food in your world according to Nathan, I'm sure he can tell you all about it, this way please" she said walking out of the room, with all of them quickly following.

(Canterlot castle, dining hall)

As they all sat at the table, Nathan continued to tell them all about his various adventures in the past two weeks, as well as tell them all the things he had discovered, as part of their dinner, all the others soldiers were given simple daisy sandwiches, as a meal, knowing that they would probably not enjoy a more exquisite meal, as they all ate, Nathan and Twilight watched with amused looks as the other soldiers, looked awkwardly at the meal in front of them, and some of them even poked at it with their forks, which only made Nathan chuckle.

As they ate, suddenly Celestia cleared her throat, and turned to the General, "well General, now that you know your friend is safe, how long will you be here, but more importantly how will you get home, back to your world?" she asked looking at him, he looked over at Nathan who merely had a concerned look on his face, he sighed and looked up at her, "with all due respect, before we left, Professor Edwards came up with a device that could reopen the portal from this end, but it must be done in the same spot as when we came here, it will only be open for a short time" he said with a serious look, Celestia looked away for a minute, and then nodded, "very well, I will do what I can to assist you" she said taking another bite of her food.

A few minutes passed as they ate, when Celestia looked over at Nathan and could see the troubled look in his eyes, "Nathan, you seem troubled, what's wrong?" she asked concerned, when he heard his name being called, he shook his head and looked up at her, "oh me, nothing I'm fine, just a little tired I guess, I suppose we all are" he said taking a bite of his sandwich even though he wasn't very hungry, Celestia eyed him suspiciously, and she could tell he was lying, "I can tell when you're lying, something is troubling you, I sensed it in you, when I arrived in PonyVille" she said, he looked up at her, and then at the others, the soldiers on the far end, were to occupied with their own conversations to listen, but Twilight and her friends, the General, and Drake were listening intently, he looked down for a second and took a deep breath.

"alright, the truth is, for the past few night I've been having these dreams, or nightmares more like it, they started about a week ago, after I got attacked in the forest, I woke up to find myself in the middle of a clearing in the forest, when this dark shadowy mist started to come out, followed by this pony with a dark gray coat and a black mane, he had these eyes, glowing green with this purple aura coming off them" he said recalling the details of the first dream he had.

He looked up to see the confused looks on the Drake's and the General's face, but when he looked over at Twilight and the Princess's, he saw a shocked and worried look on their faces, Celestia thought for a moment, from what he thought he saw, Nathan could have sworn he saw a hint of fear in the Princess's eyes, he took a deep breath, "and did this…pony, give a name or anything?" she asked in a slightly trembling voice, Nathan thought for a moment, trying to remember the other details, and then it hit him, "yeah, he said his name was…Sombra, King Sombra, he was the one that took over the Crystal Empire, he asked me to join him, and help reclaim his throne" he said, with a worried tone, for a second Princess Celestia paled, more than her white coat, but she took a deep breath, just as Twilight spoke up.

"But that's impossible, he was destroyed by the Crystal Heart, how could he return?" she asked, Celestia turned to her sister, and then sighed, "there is one way, when Nathan first arrived, my sister and I, felt a powerful magical disturbance, a human being here, might have disturbed the balance temporarily, and allowed Sombra to regain his full strength, and if he's back, he will try to take back the Crystal Empire like before" she said in a concerned tone.

Nathan was about to saying something when the door to the room opened and in ran a member of the royal guard, a panicked look on his face, he ran up to the opposite end of the table, and took a deep breath, "sorry for interrupting your highness, but we have a situation, we've received a distress signal from the Crystal Empire, we've tried contacting them but nopony is responding" he said, looking across the table at the Princess who merely frowned, Nathan looked up at her, concern written on his face, she looked at him, matching his expression, "and it may seem that he already has, come with me, all of you" she said as she stood up and made her way out of the room, the other soldiers looked at each other, and then all quickly stood up and followed her out.

As they walked down the hall, the General came up beside Nathan an anxious look on his face, "Richards, what is going on?" he asked looking around as they walked down the hall, Nathan looked at him with a troubled look, "I don't know, but it can't be good" he said as they continued following the Princess's to a different part of the castle.

(Canterlot castle, Royal Guard headquarters)

After walking through the castle for a few minutes, they came into a much larger room, where they saw a bunch of other ponies dressed in suits of armor walking around; the room was filled with large TV. Screens, some of them had radar screens on them; others had lists of all the royal guard outposts in the kingdom.

They walked into the main circle, where they saw a pony in a higher ranking uniform giving orders to all the others, "what's the situation commander" she said, to the pony as he turned to her, the commander took over when ever Shining Armor returned to the Crystal Empire, he looked up at her with a serious look, "not too long ago we received a distress signal from our outpost near the Empire, they claimed that the citizens were under some kind of mind control spell, and that the base was under attack, right before it got cut off, we sent out an airship but we haven't heard anything yet" he said as he turned to the pony in front of the console.

"play the message" he said, the pony nodded and started pressing some buttons, when the message played over the speakers, _"...this is lieutenant (static)… were under attack, the citizens of the empire seem to be under some spell(static), they have us outnumbered, we need help, send reinforcements…" _the message said before it cut out, the commander turned to the Princess, "what are your orders, Princess?" he asked, Celestia brought her hoof up to her chin and thought for a moment, and then she started pacing around the room, and then she sighed heavily, "alright, get a squad ready" she said as she turned to the commander, and he started issuing orders.

The entire time this was happening, Nathan felt his heartbeat increasing, he thought for a moment, remembering about his dream, he couldn't help but feel partly responsible for this, by not telling Twilight sooner, as she could have told the Princess and prepared for this, he turned to the General who was lost in thought, "General…" he said, as he turned to him, the General could see that look in his eyes, and knew what he was going to say, and didn't like it, "I can see that look in your eyes, and the answer is no" he said flatly, and Nathan frowned at his decision not to help.

"but General, they need our help, the least we can do is offer up our help, who knows what might happen to them, they don't know what they're walking in to" he said, trying to convince the General, but his attempt failed, "and you do? Nathan…listen to me, I know you feel obliged to help them, but this isn't our problem, our mission was to bring you home, and that's what we are here to do" he said, trying to state his point, but Nathan seemed determined, "General…why not, can we really just leave, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself, if we leave, and something bad happens, I know you haven't been here that long, but we have to try and help them, besides I'm partly responsible, if I had never come here, then this would have never happened, I caused this, so I need to fix this, and I'm not leaving until I do" he said in a firm tone, the General could see the seriousness in his eyes, and knew he wasn't joking.

He looked away for a minute, putting his hands on his hips; he looked up at Nathan for a minute, and then sighed heavily, "your one tough son of a bitch Richards, going out of your way to help an entirely different race of creatures, that you're most likely never going to see again, but you have a point, fine you win" he said, as Nathan smiled, and went over to the Princess who was talking to the commander.

"Princess Celestia, wait" he said as he walked over to her, she turned to him with a confused look, "what if we help you do this, take back the Empire" he said, in a hopeful tone, the Princess seemed surprised at his offer, and looked down at the commander who merely shrugged his shoulders, she thought for a minute, and then smiled at him, "if that is what you want, we'll be more than happy to have your help, you all best get ready, we'll leave for the train station soon" she said as she walked away, Nathan smiled and walked back to the General, who merely stared at him, "I really hope you know what you're doing" he said in a calm tone.

Nathan merely walked next to him, and looked at him, and said quietly, so only he could hear.

"So do I"

**A/N: well that's a rap, another chapter done, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed, tune in next time as we grow closer to the final battle, peace.**


	15. Chapter 14

**A/N: well, like I said my primary focus would be this story, and I said that I would finish it before I return to school, and I'm keeping to it, so here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy, and get ready for the end because it's coming fast.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 14: the final play**

(Crystal Empire, castle dungeons)

Shining Armor woke with a huge pounding in his head, he slowly opened his eyes, and found himself in some kind of cell, he looked around and slowly stood up, hearing rattling, he looked down and saw chains locked around his hooves, he also noticed one around his neck, "what the…" he said as he tried pulling at it, but failed, he took a deep breath and used a lock picking spell, but was surprised to find that it didn't work, he sat down and looked around, as his eyes adjusted to the dark room, lit only by a few torches on the walls.

When he looked at the other side of the room, he saw his wife, locked inside another cell, he quickly stood up and called out to her, "Cadence?! Wake up, are you okay?" he asked, as his wife stirred, she slowly stood up rubbing her head, "Shining? Where are we, wait, this is the castle dungeons, how did we get here?" she asked looking around and then noticing her chains, and attempting to break them.

Suddenly they heard a deep chuckle, come from the dark corner in the room, they watched as a familiar gray coated unicorn appear in the room, "ah, good your both awake, I was starting to think I hit you too hard" he said as he started walking in front of the cells, "Sombra!" Shining Armor said as he yanked forward only to get caught back by the chain around his neck, almost causing him to choke, this gesture simple amused Sombra.

"careful Captain, you might choke yourself to death, and then you'll miss all the fun" he said in a calm tone, while letting out a chuckle, Shining Armor stepped back, "that's Prince to you!" he said angrily, as Sombra walked up to the cell bars, "ah yes, I must remember my manners, I am in the presence of royalty, but one thing you forget, you may be a prince, but I am a king" he said with a sinister smile, Shining Armor growled as he struggled against the chains, "your no king, you're a tyrant, you enslaved the crystal ponies, made them work, a true king doesn't abuse his power and treat his subjects like dirt" he said slowly, Sombra frowned at this.

"oh please, spare the lecture, you think you know what it takes to be a king, how those two foolish Princesses of yours picked you two to lead the Empire, is beyond me, but in case you don't know, I've been a king longer than you've even been in this world!" he said in a threatening tone, Shining Armor slowly backed away, the let the chains dangle, just as Cadence spoke up.

"Where is the crystal heart?" she asked standing up, Sombra turned to her, and calmly walked over to her cage, "oh fear not my dear, I assure you it's perfectly safe" he said as he slowly started walking away, but Cadence stopped him, "you won't win, Twilight and her friends will find a way to stop you, they did last time" she said bravely, he stopped in place and started laughing, and turned to face her, "you really think so? In case you're not aware, the elements of harmony don't affect me, the only thing that can harm me is the crystal heart, and it's hidden, at the top of the castle's tower, same as last time, except I've added in some new security" he said in an amused tone, Cadence slowly sat down, but then an idea popped into her head, "what about Nathan and his friends, they'll stop you" she said confidently, a surprised look appeared on Sombra's face, but then he smiled and burst out laughing, "ha! The human? I wouldn't be surprised if he's already gone, I wouldn't put your faith in him" he said as he turned around again, and took another step, "your wrong, he'll come, he will help us" she said leaning against the wall, he smiled widely, "even if he does, do you really think he has a chance to stop me, that any of his weapons could harm me?" he asked looking back at her, she looked up at him, "you'd be surprised, he has a good heart, I felt it, it's part of who I am, I can look at a pony's heart, or in this case a human's heart, he's a good man, he'll find a way" she said with a slight smile.

Sombra thought for a moment, and then looked back at her again, "we shall see, if he does come, I'll have a special surprise for him, a very special surprise" he said with a wicked smile, as he disappeared into smoke.

(Crystal Empire, train station)

After meeting at the Canterlot train station, they devised a plan on how to fight the king, allowing the General and his soldiers to have their weapons back; they boarded the train to the Empire, hoping that it wouldn't end badly.

After the train came to a stop, they all walked out on to the platform, and looked around, and much to their shock, the Empire looked in terrible shape, the streets were empty, lamp posts had fallen down, some of the buildings looked ruined, the sky overhead was covered by a swirling black cloud, that seemed to be spinning around the top of the castle's tower, they all made their way to the streets, and kept an eye out for anything suspicious, but the streets were dead quiet.

As they walked Nathan looked down at Twilight, "I don't get it, where are the crystal ponies, you would think they would be wandering around" he said looking at the ruined buildings, Twilight looked around as well, "I'm not sure, but keep an eye out, they could be anywhere" she said as they calmly made their way under the castle, for some reason Nathan thought it looked like a large crystal Eiffel tower, but he quickly pushed that thought aside when one of the soldiers spoke up, "sir, I'm getting a reading" he said as they all walked up to him, and looked at the screen, it was showing a large mass of living creatures, coming up the street they just came up.

When they looked down the street, they were shocked to see the entire population of the empire, all formed into one big mob, slowly walking down the street towards them, from what they could tell, their eyes were glowing green and they had a sort of purple aura coming off them, "that's not good" Nathan said out loud, the General thought for a minute, and then turned to his soldiers, "alright men, form a perimeter, make sure your guns are loaded, this might get messy" he said as all the soldiers began making makeshift barriers to crouch behind, and then loading their rifles, Twilight's eyes widened at this and ran over to him, "you're not going to shoot them are you!?" she asked loudly, the General looked down at her, with a confused expression.

"We have to hold the line, at any cost" he said the last part slowly, Twilight frowned as she spoke up, "wait you can't! They're not evil, their just under a spell, their still real ponies, you have to buy us enough time to cancel the spell" she said in a panicked tone, he looked down at her again, "well what do you think we should do, you may have magic but we don't" he said to her, just as Nathan walked up, "General, you said you have stun rounds, just use those, it won't kill them, just knock them out" he said, the General thought for a minute, and then turned to his men, "alright boys, switch to stun rounds, I repeat no live rounds!" he shouted as they all switched their clips to stun rounds, over the years the military found a way to use bullets to stun and knock people out rather than kill them.

As they did that, Twilight ran up to the Commander, who was giving orders to his soldiers, "Commander, can you and your soldiers set up a shield, it might be able to buy more time" she said hopefully, the Commander thought for a moment and then smiled, "we'll try to give you as much as we can" he said turning to his soldiers, "alright, all unicorns follow me, we need to set up a shield to delay them as much as possible, come with me" he said as they followed him to the barriers, they all took deep breaths and closed their eyes, all the other soldiers watched as a shield slowly began to cover the area around them, and watched as the crystal ponies walked up, and began pounding on the shield.

Nathan took a deep breath as he watched it all unfold, "we can't hold it forever, you'd better get moving!" the Commander shouted, as they kept their focus on maintaining the shield, the General walked up to Nathan, with Drake following, "okay, here take this, it's already loaded, it may prove better than the handgun" he said handing Nathan a loaded pump shotgun, Nathan held it up and examined it, and turned to Drake, "you ready for this?" he asked, Drake looked down at Twilight and her friends, and then looked back up at Nathan, "better find out" he said with a chuckle as they quickly ran up to the main castle door, and opened it.

(Crystal Empire, castle interior)

As they stood in the main entry way, they looked around, the castle's halls were completely quite, not a soul stirred, standing there Drake turned to Nathan, "what's the plan?" he asked, Nathan turned to him, "okay, you find the dungeon and get Shining Armor and Cadence out, while Twilight and I search the castle for the crystal heart" he said, as Drake turned and made his way down the hall, with Twilight's friends, before he turned back, "Nathan, be careful, neither of us have any idea what this guy's capable of" he said, Nathan nodded and they both went their separate ways.

After what seemed like a long period of time, Twilight and Nathan found them standing outside the throne room door, the room was lite only by dim torches on the wall, Twilight looked up at Nathan with a worried look, "are you sure you're ready for this, there's no telling what we'll face in there" she said, Nathan looked down at her and did his best to smile, but it didn't work so well, "let's do this" he said as he pushed open the door and they quickly walked inside, checking all the corners, making sure there was no ambush, as they made their way to the middle of the room, they heard a deep laugh, "ah, my special guests have finally arrived" came the voice, they followed it up to the throne where they saw a familiar grey coated unicorn sitting on the throne, he was looking down at them with a smile.

Nathan immediately brought his shotgun up, and pointed it at him, Sombra merely smiled when he saw Nathan, "Mr. Richards, have you gotten the chance to think about my offer?" he asked, Nathan frowned at slowly lowered the gun, "I did, and the answer is no, I'm here to stop you, that's all!" he shouted, Sombra sighed heavily and stood up, and began walking down the small ramp and over to the window, the entire time Nathan not taking his eyes off him.

"I had hoped you would make the smarter choice, we could have made a great team, with my power and your extensive knowledge of science, we could not only rule this world, but your world too, I can make you the king of your world, and have them all bow to you" he said turning to him with a smile, Nathan was about to say something when Twilight spoke up first, "where's the crystal heart?" she demanded, stomping her hoof, Sombra turned to her and smiled again.

"Oh fear not, it's perfectly safe, since I can't destroy it, I hid it away" he said with a menacing tone, Nathan had heard enough, raising the shotgun up at him, "enough of your games! Where's the crystal heart? Answer me!" Nathan shouted, cocking the shotgun, Sombra merely smiled, "you really think that your pathetic human weapon can harm me, but if you feel so strongly about it, I invite you to shoot" he said, Nathan hesitated for a moment, but then took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, a loud crack sounded through the room, as the shell flew out of the chamber, Nathan looked forward, but saw nothing, Sombra was gone, he cocked the shotgun again, and turned around, and saw him leaning in the window sill, a mocking expression on his face, "oh my, you really need to work on your aim" he said with a laugh, Nathan growled and fired off another shell, only to have the same result, he looked around and saw Sombra sitting on the throne with a calm look on his face.

"tell me this Nathan, why do you fight for them, they've done nothing for you, you own them nothing, why do you choose to fight, when you can go home, back to your family, back to your fiancée, tell me why you fight?" he asked looking down at him, Nathan cocked another shell into the chamber, and pointed it at him, only to see Sombra's horn light up, and a black beam of energy shooting out, knocking the shotgun out of his hand, Nathan cried out in pain and rubbed his hands, as Sombra slowly started walking towards him.

"Tell me, why do you fight for them?" he asked, Nathan growled and charged forward, Sombra smiled as his horn glowed again, and out came a black beam that hit Nathan in the chest, and sent his flying backwards, and landing on his back, Nathan coughed as he tried to sit up, but felt himself get pushed down, he looked up and saw Sombra standing over him, with an evil smile.

"I said tell me!" he shouted, Nathan knew he wouldn't be able to get out of this, he took a deep breath, "I fight, because I believe that anybody, of any kind of race, has the right to live free" he said as he looked up, Sombra smiled down at him, "an honorable reason, but weak, I had hoped to have more fun with you, but oh well, time to die Nathan" he said as his horn glowed, Nathan tried his best to struggle free, but failed every time, Nathan closed his eyes, and heard a blast, but didn't feel any pain, he looked up to see Sombra was off him, he looked back to see Twilight breathing heavily, as she ran up to him, he pushed himself up, holding his arm, he saw Sombra push himself up.

He looked over at them and smiled, "well, this just got more interesting, if you want to continue this, I'll be in the tower" he said as his horn glowed and in a flash he was gone, Twilight turned to him with a worried look on her face, "are you alright, Nathan?" she asked, he rubbed his arm and looked around, "yeah I think so, he hit me pretty hard, and I have a feeling that's barely anything compared to what he's really capable of" he said as he looked around, searching for a way to the tower.

"He said he's be in the tower, how do we get there?" he asked looking around, Twilight thought for a moment and then remembered how she got there last time, "I know, you might want to stand to the side" she said, Nathan did so and watched as Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as her horn started glowing, Nathan watched in amazement as her horn started glowing with a black aura, and he noticed the same purple aura coming from her eyes, and watched as the beam hit the top crystal behind the throne, and a long shadow seeped down and across the floor, Nathan's eyes widened as he stepped back, as the floor opened, revealing a long dark spiral staircase down, Twilight stopped and nearly collapsed, but she stood up, and walked over to where the staircase started, and sighed happily.

Nathan stared with a shocked expression, "now that, was really amazing" he said with a wide eyed look, Twilight giggled, Nathan snapped out of his shocked state, and looked down into the hole, and gulped nervously, "please don't tell me we have to go down there" he said nervously, Twilight looked at him and nodded, and using her the tip of her horn as a light, she started walking down the stairs, Nathan groaned and followed her, having his handgun at the ready.

As they slowly walked down the stairs, both Nathan and Twilight were careful not to slip and fall, it would be a long way down, as they kept walking, Nathan didn't understand how Twilight knew to do that, "hey Twilight, how did you know to use that kind of magic?" he asked, Twilight sighed heavily, "the last time this happened, I was searching the castle for the heart, and got the idea, I used dark magic, and then the floor opened up" she said as they came to the bottom, they looked up and saw that they had walked a long ways down, they turned to their side, and saw a door in the wall, Nathan looked at Twilight and then took a deep breath, and reached for it, but just before his hand reached it, they heard a voice behind them.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" came a voice familiar only to Nathan; he slowly lowered his hand, as he felt his heart beating rapidly against his chest, he slowly turned around, as saw a tall figure in the shadows, leaning against the wall, Nathan knew exactly who it was, he could feel tears starting to well up in his eyes, "hello again…James" he said as the figure emerged from the shadows, only confirming his suspicions, there standing in front of him was his older brother James, dressed in casual clothing.

The tears slowly slipped down his face, as Twilight's horn started glowing, Nathan held up his hand, "no, this is mine" he said as Twilight backed away, "good to see you again little bro" his brother said in a calm tone, as he put his hands in his pockets, Nathan just stood there, a blank expression on his face, "I wish I could say the same for you" he said back, he watched as his brother chuckled, "so…this is how it's going to be, you choosing these ponies over your own brother, your own family, I must say I'm disappointed in you, and I'm sure mom and dad would be too" he said in a mocking tone as they started to circle each other.

Nathan just stared him down, as the tears began to dry, "as much as I would want you back, some things aren't meant to be changed, even if it means bringing loved ones back to life, it can't be done" he said as they stopped and stared at each other, Nathan watched as his brother started laughing, "oh Nathan, you've always been one for bring Mr. philosophy, but I can't let you stop the king, I just can't" he said as he removed his hands from his pocket, and started walking towards him, prompting Nathan to raise the gun up, and point it at him, "and I can't let you get in my way, brother or not, I will stop him" he said as James backed up.

Nathan kept the gun steady, as James raised his hands in defense, "alright, if that's how it's going to be, if you're willing to kill your own brother, then I invite you to shoot me" he said in a confident tone, and watched as the conflict in Nathan's eyes raged, a smile slowly spreading across his face.

Nathan felt the gun shake in his hands, a part of his mind told him to pull the trigger, he knew it wasn't really his brother, his brother was dead, and this was just some sick replica, but the other part of him told him that if he did it, he might destroy any possible way to bring him back, Nathan stared him down as the gun began to shake violently.

James watched with an amused smile, as Nathan put his arm down, and James lowered his arms, "I…I can't" he said as he looked down in shame, his brother smiled and slowly walked over to him, as Nathan threw the gun to the side, James stood in front of him, and placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him lightly, Nathan looked up at him, seeing the kind smile on his brothers face, "it's okay Nathan, it's going to be okay" he said in a comforting tone, as Nathan felt tears running down his face, unaware to Nathan, his brother slowly pulled out a knife from his pocket, when Nathan looked down he saw this and immediately pushed away, only to have his brother swipe at him, nearly cutting him in the stomach.

Nathan jumped back and rolled to the side, as he heard Twilight call out, "Nathan catch!" she yelled, Nathan turned to see Twilight throwing him his handgun, he reached out and caught it, in mid-throw, and pointed it at his brother, who was charging at him, time seemed to slow for him as he looked away, and pulled the trigger, and heard a loud bang go off.

A few minutes past before he looked over and saw his brother, lying on his back, blood leaking from a bullet hole in his chest, Nathan slowly got up and walked over there, and stood over his brother, tears began to fill his eyes again, as he looked at the gun in his hand, and put it in his pocket.

Looking down at his brother, he saw him trying to say something, but couldn't make out what it was, he watched as his brother slowly held out his hand, Nathan got down on one knee, and grabbed his brother's hand, they stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like minutes, when his brother's hand went limp and he closed his eyes.

Nathan felt the tears fall to the ground as his brother's body went limp, and then much to his surprise, his brother's body began to fade into black smoke and disappear in the ground, Nathan looked at his hand and slowly stood up, as Twilight walked up beside him, and paced a hoof on his hand, Nathan slowly began to clench his hand angrily, "I'm sorry Nathan, I know you loved your brother" she said in a comforting tone, Nathan cleared his throat, "yes, my brother was a great man, but he's dead, and nothing can bring him back, it's just something I'm going to live with" he said, as he made his way to the door and grabbed the handle, "what are you going to do?" she asked, Nathan tensed and turned to her, rage burning in his eyes, "I'm going to find that son of a bitch and kill him" he said in a dark tone as he opened the door and walked into the bright light, Twilight quickly followed after him.

**A/N: well, the last part was certainly interesting, hope you all enjoyed, because were coming up to the final fight, can Nathan and Twilight overcome Sombra, tune in next time to find out.**


	16. Chapter 15

**A/N: well here it is, we've finally made it to the final battle, the fate of the Crystal Empire, and equestria hangs in the balance, and it's all up to Nathan, read and find out how it all ends, hope you enjoy.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 15: tower battle**

(Crystal Empire, outside the castle)

After Nathan and Drake left the General turned to the barriers and picked up his rifle, and waited as the hypnotized crystal ponies pounded away at the shield, with the combined amount of blows, they all watched as the shield began to crack, in various places, watching the ponies back up and charge straight into the shield, the General looked at the other soldiers, "alright men, when that shield breaks, open fire" he said as the cracks on the shield spread farther, "ah, we can't hold it much longer!" the commander yelled out as some of the unicorns began to pass out from exhaustion, until he was left, just as he finally passed out, the final blow shattered the shield, they all looked away as the shield shattered at them.

Ducking behind the barrier, the General waited a few minutes, and then looked over and saw the crystal ponies just standing there, not moving at all, as all the soldiers stood up, one of the ponies took a step forward, suddenly shouting out, and charging forward, the General stood up and pointed forward, "open fire!" he shouted and the air was filled with rifle fire as the soldiers fired on the mob, the bullets hit the ponies and they instantly collapsed, knocked out.

The battle had officially begun.

(Crystal Empire, castle dungeons)

Shining Armor and Cadence sat in their cells, both leaning up against the wall, Cadence seemed very depressed, Shining Armor knew he had to try and cheer her up, "Cadence…it's going to be alright, Twilight and her friends will find a way, with or without Nathan's help" he said, Cadence looked up at him, and was about to say something, when they heard somepony running down the stairs, they turned to the door, and saw it fly open, and in ran Nathan's human friend Drake, "oh there you guys are" he said relieved, as Twilight's friends ran in with him, but no Twilight, they watched as her friends Applejack immediately ran up and bucked the lock on the cell door, but having no effect.

"darn it, we need something to pick the lock" she said as they all looked around, Drake watched for a moment, and then sighed taking his rifle and pointing it at the lock, pulling the trigger, and firing off a few rounds, the lock shattered and Drake calmly opened the cell door, they all looked at him with a shocked look, he just smiled smugly, "what? We don't have any time to waste" he said as he walked in, pulled out his pistol and shot the wall restraints that led to Shining's hooves and neck, he quickly unlatched them and ran to the other cell, Drake followed and did the same thing.

Shining ran in and hugged his wife, as he did he turned and looked back at Drake, "where's Twilight?" he asked, with a sacred look in his eyes, Drake sighed, "Twilight and Nathan went to confront the king, and find the crown" he said, as a shocked look appeared on both Shining's and Cadence's face, "well let's go and find them!" Shining shouted as they all ran out of the dungeon, and made their way up.

(Crystal Empire, secret castle stairway)

After walking through the door, Nathan and Twilight found them at the bottom of a massive spiral staircase, that they assumed, would lead them to the top of the castle's tower, where they knew Sombra would be waiting for them, Nathan immediately started walking up the stairs, determined to find the heart, and finish it.

Twilight quickly ran after him, and joined him at his side, as they continued walking up, Nathan remained silent, which made Twilight look up at him with a worried look, and she could see the sheer determination in his eyes, she tried to think of something to say to him, but couldn't find the words.

"Nathan…listen, about what happened back there" she said with a calm tone, Nathan didn't even look at her and said, "I don't want to talk about it" he said as he kept his pace, Twilight looked away for a for a minute, and then looked back at him, "you realize this doesn't have to end violently, all we have to do is activate the heart, and it should free the crystal ponies from his spell, and weaken him, so he can't fight," she said, Nathan stopped and turned to her, a calm but angry look on his face, "I know, I'll distract him, and you get to the heart, but I will not let that bastard insult my brother's memory" he said as he continued walking, Twilight stood there for a minute and then ran up in front of him, making him stop.

"Fine, but if we keep going at this rate, we'll never get there in time, allow me" she said as her horn started to glow, and in a brief flash they were gone.

After they appeared, Nathan felt a brief moment of dizziness, and then shook his head and focused again, "a little warning next time" he said as he looked up and found themselves at the top of the staircase, Nathan looked at Twilight and nodded, taking out his handgun, they climbed the last few steps, and found themselves at the top of the castle's tower, they kept watch for trouble, as they turned to the center of the room, where they saw it.

The crystal heart, floating in mid-air, Twilight saw it and she smiled as she took a few steps, when they heard a deep chuckle, they looked and saw Sombra step out from behind the heart, and smile at them, "at last you've arrived, I was starting to think you were going to leave, did you enjoy the family reunion Nathan?" he said turning to him with a smile, Nathan frowned as his fist tightened.

He was about to say something, when Twilight beat him to it, "were going to use the crystal heart to free the crystal ponies, whether you like it or not" she said in a brave tone, Sombra smiled and took a step closer, "well then, as the saying goes, you'll have to go through me" he said as he got in a fighting stance, they all fell silent, as the wind from the clouds outside, blew through the open tower.

Twilight made the first move by shooting a blast of magic at Sombra, who merely smiled and raised a shield up, he smiled as his horn glowed and blast of dark magic flew at her, she jumped out of the way as it exploded on the floor, Nathan raised the gun and began firing off rounds only to have no effect, Nathan's eyes widened as the bullets bounced off of his shield, Sombra turned to him with a smile, "still think your pathetic human weapons can harm me? Allow me to enlighten you" he said as he pulled out a knife, and charged at him, he jumped into the air and moved straight at him, right before he hit, Nathan jumped to the side, and landed smoothly, Sombra crashing to the floor in the spot where Nathan was.

Nathan raised the pistol and fired off another shot, successfully shooting the knife from Sombra's hoof, he turned to him and growled, as his horn glowed and a blast of magic shot out at Nathan, Nathan barely managed to roll to the side before it hit, And got to his knees, and pointed at where he was, and was shocked to see that he was gone.

Nathan began looking in all directions, but couldn't find him, anywhere, suddenly he heard Twilight shout out, "behind you!" she yelled, Nathan jolted around, only to be knocked to the ground, and having the gun fly out of his hand, he tried to push himself up, but found himself being forced to the ground, by some unknown force, only able to move his head, he looked up to see Sombra walking towards him, smiling sadistically, he watched as Sombra levitated up the gun with his magic, and observed it, before smiling and looking at him.

"An interesting piece of weaponry, let's see what it feels like to be on the opposite side" he said as he leveled it, so that it was pointing straight at Nathan, who continued to struggle, which only made Sombra laugh, "you should have seen this coming, you should have known that you wouldn't stand a chance, but still, if it means anything, you have put a smile on my face" he said as he adjusted it so that it was pointing straight at Nathan's forehead, laughing as he did so, "to be killed by your own weapon, how ironic" he said as the magic slowly began to pull the trigger, suddenly Sombra cried out in surprise as a beam of magic, came out and hit him in the side, causing him to fly off, and land on the ground with a thud.

Suddenly the force holding Nathan down went away, and he quickly sat up, he looked over and saw Twilight standing there, with a smug look on her face, Nathan smiled and stood up and picked up his pistol, and pointed it at Sombra, who slowly stood up and rubbed his head, he looked up at Nathan, and frowned.

"That's it, I'm done with these games" he said as his horn glowed, and a knife appeared, Sombra yelled out as he lunged for Nathan, who barely managed to dodge, as the blade just barely cut through this shirt sleeve, he moved to the side, as Sombra landed, and quickly turned around, and shot a blast of magic at him, which made him land near the edge, Nathan quickly got into a crawling position, and moved away from the edge.

Sombra smiled as he turned to see Twilight sneaking towards the heart, his horn glowed and he vanished, Twilight looked around, and then her ear perked up, and she turned around sharply, only to be grabbed by the throat and lifted into the air, she looked down to see Sombra smiling up at her, "sorry, but I can't let you do that" he said as he shoved her into the wall, causing her to crash, and fall down, unconscious.

Sombra stared at her for a few minutes, and then took a deep breath, and just as he did, he heard Nathan chuckling, he turned to see him lying on his side, laughing, a scowl came on Sombra's face, as he fully turned to him and started walking over, "and what is so funny?" he asked, Nathan just smiled, and looked up, "you are" he said, Sombra frowned and walked up to him, Nathan smiled, "you think you're a good ruler, but you're the pathetic one" he said, Sombra growled and smacked Nathan across the face, sending him to the ground, Nathan continued to laugh, only making Sombra angrier.

"you…you think you're a good leader, I'd be a better fit for the position" he said, Sombra yelled out as he picked up Nathan by the collar, and punched him in the face, multiple times, before throwing him to the ground and kicking him in the stomach, Nathan laughed again, as he coughed, Sombra picked him up by the collar, "you dare compare yourself to me, I'm a god, your nothing but a weak, pathetic, insect and it's time I exterminate you" he said raising his hoof, when he noticed Nathan's smile, "not today" he said, then Sombra's eyes widened, and he looked back to see Twilight just about to touch the crystal heart, he growled and threw Nathan to the floor, and ran after her, "NO!" he shouted, Nathan sat up, "Twilight now!" he shouted, Twilight looked back to see Sombra running at her, she gasped and quickly moved her hoof up to touch the heart.

Everything slowed, as Twilight's hoof touched the heart, just as she did, the heart began to glow, as a powerful shock wave set off, knocking them all back, Nathan looked up to see the clouds beginning to dissipate, as a bright beam shot into the sky and scattered the clouds, only to be replaced by bright aurora's that stretched across the sky.

(Crystal Empire, outside the castle)

As the battle raged on, the General and his soldiers, did their best to hold back the hypnotized army, but was having little success, as the crystal ponies pushed closer and closer, and the fact that they were running out of stun rounds, as it continued, suddenly they heard a very loud boom, come from the sky, they watched as the crystal ponies stopped in place and looked up at the sky, the soldiers followed suit.

Looking up they watched a bright shockwave, blew away all the dark clouds and it was replaced by a bright rainbow aurora, they looked and saw as all the crystal ponies eyes began to turn to normal, and they shook their heads and looked around confused, the General sighed happily and looked up at the top of the castle, "nice job Nathan, nice job" he said with a wide smile, then turned to his men to assess any injuries.

(Crystal Empire, castle tower)

After the blast, Nathan and all them stood up, Sombra ran to the edge and looked at the sky, growling he looked at the streets below, and saw that the fighting stopped and the crystal ponies had returned to normal, "no…" he said under his breath, suddenly he looked and screamed, "NOOOO!" he yelled as he turned to face Twilight, murder burning in his eyes, he picked up his knife and started walking towards her, she slowly started backing up but he ran up to her, and grabbed her by her throat and lifted her into the air, leaving her hooves dangling, "you…you took away my victory!" he said as he suddenly threw her to the ground, and raised the knife up.

Sombra yelled out as he thrust the knife forward, Twilight looked away in fear, then she heard it, the sound of a blade piercing flesh, but mush to her surprise, she didn't feel any pain, she opened her eyes, and looked in front of her, much to her horror, Nathan was kneeling in front of her, a strained look in his eyes, she looked down and saw Sombra's knife, pierced though his chest, she looked up into his eyes, and saw the fear and regret, the silence was broken by Sombra, "fool…" he said as he pulled the knife out, and knocked Nathan to the side, Nathan cried out in pain, as he landed on his side, clutching the bleeding wound.

Sombra was stunned by his action, but he smiled and walked over to him, laughing as he rolled Nathan on to his back, Nathan groaned as blood seeped from the hole in his body, Sombra laughed as he watched Nathan try to move, "you are brave, I'll give you that, but you know what they say, and I'm sure you've heard this before, bravery is just a kinder work for stupidity" he said as Nathan tried to raise his hand, but failed, Sombra merely chuckled at this gesture, "nice isn't it, it's a very powerful type of poison, it spreads through the body painfully, until it is paralyzed, then you're just left waiting, lying there as the poison makes its way to the heart, normally I would kill you right now, but I think I'll let you lie there and suffer, while I kill your friend, and you can watch, pretty soon you won't feel anything, but I assure you, it will be painful" he said as he turned to Twilight, and smiled as he started walking towards her, Twilight started crawling backwards.

"you lost Sombra, the heart is active, you have no power" she said as she backed up, Sombra frowned as he stepped in front of her, his horn started to glow, as he closed his eyes, he felt that his strength was weakening, he opened his eyes and looked to see Twilight smiling smugly, he growled and smacked her to the floor, "that may be true, but I don't need my magic to kill you, now you die!" he yelled raising his knife again, but just as he started bringing it down, he stopped when he heard a very weak voice, "no…your wrong" the voice said, Sombra turned to see Nathan on his knees, holding the pistol, Sombra's eyes grew wide, "that's not possible, you can't be moving" he said, Nathan did his best to smile, but only managed a weak one.

"Yeah? Guess again" he said as he pulled the trigger, and a familiar loud bang filled the air, and Sombra felt a sharp pain in his chest, he looked down with wide eyes as the knife fell from his grasp and clanged to the floor, he placed his hoof on his chest and looked at it, it was covered in blood, he staggered and fell to his knees, "it's…not…possible" he said looking up at Nathan, who smiled again, "oh but…it is, and I promise you…it will be…painful" he said as he fired off another shot, hitting Sombra between the eyes, his head snapped back, and he fell on his side, blood leaking from both wounds.

Twilight looked up at Nathan who coughed, and dropped the gun, as rolled on to his side, "Nathan!" Twilight yelled as she ran up to him, she saw him clenching his knife wound, she tried her best to life him, but he weight to much, she turned his head to face hers, she could see the tears forming in his eyes, "Twilight…I…I'm sorry" he said, Twilight shushed him, and placed a hoof on his wound, only making him cringe, "don't talk, you'll need to preserve your strength" she said as she heard steps coming up the stairs, she looked up to see Cadence, Shining Armor, and Nathan's friend Drake run up the steps, Drake took one look to where they were, and his eyes filled with terror.

"Nathan, no!" he yelled as he ran up to them, and got on his knees, and lifted Nathan up to support him, he turned his head to face him, "Nathan, what happened, come stay with me!" he shouted, Twilight looked up at him, "he saved my life, he's been poisoned, we need to get him to the medic, he'll know what to do" she said, she looked up at Cadence and nodded she nodded back, as she closed her eyes, and her horn glowed brightly, and in a quick flash they were gone.

**A/N: well…there you have it, sombra's dead, but Nathan is dying, will he survive, tune in next time for the last two chapters, peace.**


	17. Chapter 16

**A/N: well my friends, here it is, the second to last chapter of this story, I hope you have all enjoyed it, it's been a blast writing it, hope you enjoy.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 16: the return home**

The last thing Nathan could remember doing was looking up into Twilight's eyes, before everything went black, when Nathan opened his eyes, at first he couldn't see anything but a blinding light, bringing his hand in front of his face he tried to shade his eyes, but found that his eyes slowly began to adjust to the light, revealing nothing more than a ceiling light.

He felt a wave of relief wash over him, as he slowly started moving his head, to the side, and saw a large bunch of balloons that all said, 'get well soon' he smiled at that and looked further, noticing a monitor with a steady beeping rhythm, he sighed heavily as he looked up, much to his surprise, he found himself in some sort of hospital room.

He lie there looking around when the door to his room, opened and in walked none other than Princess Celestia, when she looked and saw that he was awake, she smiled and walked up to the bed, "thank the stars your awake, you were giving us all, quite the scare, how are you feeling?" she asked with her usual kind smile, Nathan did his best to sit up, and balance on his elbows, but strained as he did so, but managed to push himself up.

"I feel good I guess, but what happened?" he asked looking around the room, Celestia looked down for a second but then tried her best to smile, "I started after you passed out from the poison" she said as a grim look came on her face.

(Flashback) 2 days ago

After leaving the tower, with their dying friend, they appeared in the hospital's waiting room, "doctor, we need help, our friend's been stabbed" Shining said, as a doctor and nurse, came out from a door, and put him on a stretcher, and made their way to the emergency room, where they placed him on a bed, and removed his shirt, so they could observe the wound, "he's losing a lot of blood, get me a towel, stat!" he ordered and the nurse ran out of the room, "alright, we need some stitches" he said as he looked in a drawer, he turned to Twilight as he pulled out some needles.

"Okay, I need you to heal the wound as I stitch them, it won't get rid of the wound, but it will stop the bleeding" he said as he put a mask over Nathan's mouth and pressed a button on the anesthetics machine, as soon as he was sure Nathan was asleep, he slowly began to stitch the wound up, along his chest, as he did so, Twilight used the same healing spell, that she did when she healed Nathan's bite wounds, as she did, they all watched in amazement as the wound began to heal, leaving behind a large scar where the stitches were.

After doing this for what seemed like an hour, being very precise, they did the same to his back side, and slowly the wound healed, so nothing remained but a scar, after that the nurse arrived with a towel, and they dried up all the blood, around the room.

Before he was done, Twilight looked up at the doctor, "wait, the blade he was stabbed with was poisoned, is there any way to get rid of the poison?" she asked, the doctor turned to her with a worried look, "there may be one way, but there's no telling what the effects would be on him" he said back, as Nathan's body began to spasm in certain placed, they had to strap his arms and legs down.

"Just do it please, we need to save him!" she yelled, the doctor looked away for a moment, and then turned to look at her, "I would need to blood of a unicorn, a small dosage" he said, as a shocked look appeared on her face, "what? Why would unicorn blood help him?" she asked impatient, the doctor sighed heavily, knowing they were running out of time.

"unicorn blood, has a very special type of cell that runs through it, these cells are what allow unicorns to use their magic, the more a unicorn uses magic, the more cells die off, and new ones are made, why do you think unicorn's get exhausted are using so much magic, but these cells also help to heal the body faster, numerous reports say that unicorns heal faster than pegasi or earth ponies, If you want to save him, I'll need a small dosage of your blood" he said in a serious tone.

Twilight looked away for a minute, then at Nathan and saw that his body was sweating all over, as the spams became worse, as the poison would reach his heart soon, she felt a tear run down her cheek, as she nodded, and extended out her hoof, in front of the doctor.

Surprised at the gesture, he looked at her with a questionable look, "very well, but there's no telling what the effects of unicorn's blood would be on a human" he said in a worried tone, Twilight just looked at him, "if it means saving him, take the blood" she said firmly, the doctor nodded and took out a syringe and found the proper point, and slowly stuck the needle in, causing Twilight to wince briefly, as a dark red liquid came out into the tube, he slowly pulled it out after getting enough, and gave Twilight a rag to cover the marking.

He walked up and grabbed Nathan's arm, "the blood should cancel out the poison" he said out loud as he found the vein in Nathan's arm, and slowly inserted it, and pressed down and watched as the blood left the tube and into his body, he removed it and cleaned the spot, they all turned to Nathan who kept squirming for a moment, and then he stopped and the monitor flat lined, Twilight felt a pang of fear, as to what it meant, and then saw that Nathan took a deep breath as the monitor started beeping at a normal rate, she felt a wave of relief wash over her as a nurse came by to escort them out.

The doctor wiped his face with a cloth and turned to him, "what's going to happen to him?" Twilight asked, the doctor turned to her and smiled, "his vitals are returning to normal, we'll take some blood tests, just to make sure everything's okay" he said with a smile, Twilight smiled and looked at Nathan as tears of joy welled up in her eyes, before being lead out by a nurse.

(End flashback)

Nathan sat up in bed with a shocked look, as the Princess finished telling what happened, he looked down for a minute, "she didn't have to do that for me" he said looking up at her, Celestia smiled at him, "true, but she still felt like she needed to, I can tell she likes you very much" she said, Nathan looked down and lifted the patient gown, and traced his fingers along the scar, and then did the same on his back, he sighed heavily, "where is she, what happened after that, what about Drake and all of them?" he asked in a panic, Celestia raised her hoof and smiled, "relax, they're all just fine, Twilight herself needed rest, she too went through a lot, your human friends have all returned to PonyVille, to help pack up you things, now we should return there and join them, the doctor's said you would be able to leave when you woke up, just be careful" she said as she made her way to the door, but Nathan spoke up.

"wait, why are they packing my stuff?" he asked, Celestia turned to him with a confused look, but smiled none the less, "well, now that the kind is dead, and things have returned to normal, I should imagine it's time for you and your friends to return home" she said as she left the room, leaving Nathan alone to his thoughts.

(Later that day…)

After returning to PonyVille by train, Nathan and Princess Celestia walked towards the library where they saw Twilight's friends along with Drake and the General, as they walked up, they all turned to them, and walked up smiling, the General walked up first, and extended out his hand, Nathan smiled and shook it gratefully, "well done Richards, I always knew you were one tough son of a bitch" he said with a smile, Nathan smiled back at him, "thanks General, where's Twilight?" he asked looking behind the General at her friends.

"Twilight, went too go help your human friends with their preparations for returning home" Pinkie Pie said jumping up and down excitedly, the General looked back her and chuckled, and then turned to Nathan, "yeah…what she said" he said as they all laughed and Celestia walked up to him, "come, it's time for you all to return home, hold on tight" she said as he horn glowed, and in a brief flash, they were gone.

(Everfree forest)

As Twilight watched all the humans make preparations, she couldn't help but wonder what it was like in their world, how they lived, what they ate, she smiled at the thought, but pushed that aside when she saw a bright flash, and appearing there was Princess Celestia and her friends, her smile widened as she looked at Nathan, walking and talking, she walked up to them and smiled.

"Princess Celestia, glad your all finally here, I think you're ready to go" she said with a smile, as Drake walked past them, and Celestia cleared her throat, all the humans turned to face her, as her horn glowed and a small chest appeared and she instructed them to get in a row, they all did that as she opened the chest, revealing ten shining gold medals, they all knew what it meant and gave a respectful bow, as Celestia walked up to them, "Equestria will honor your names forever, we owe you more than we can repay" she said as she levitated each medal around the soldier's necks, until she finally reached Nathan, who glanced up at her, "especially yours Nathan Richards" she said with a kind smile as she levitated a much more well decorated one and placed it around his neck, he stood up straight and admired it's solid gold design.

The General looked at all the soldiers, "alright, let's go home boys" he said, as he turned to Drake who pulled out a small device and walked over to the middle of the clearing, and placed it down on the ground, and pressed the button on the top, and quickly backed up, as they heard a loud ticking sound, suddenly a bright flash appeared, forcing them to cover their eyes, when they looked back, much to all their surprise, a bright portal stood in front of them, as they all started cheering, Nathan felt a wave of sadness watch over him, as he looked back at Twilight and her friends.

He sighed heavily and felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked over and saw the General smiling, "the portal won't stay open forever, but if it means that much to you, go say goodbye" he said, as Nathan smiled and walked back over to Twilight, and got on his knees in front of her and smiled, something she gladly returned.

"I don't know what to say, thank you I guess, for everything, you saved my life, twice now" he said with a smile, as tears started welling up in his eyes, Twilight smiled as tears swelled in hers, "yes well, it's the least I could do, you saved us all, you're a hero Nathan, just like your brother, and I think he would be proud of you" she said gently, as she placed a hoof on his knee, he felt tears spill down his cheeks at her words, "I'll never forget you, Twilight Sparkle, any of you, this has been the most remarkable experience of my life, and I owe it to you" he said, placing a hand over her hoof, she smiled back, as tears fell down her face, "I don't think we could ever forget you, Nathan Richards" she said as she lunged forward and wrapped her hooves around his neck, a gesture that greatly surprised him, but he eventually hugged her back, they stayed like that for what seemed like minutes, but they let go as he stood up, wiping the tears away.

As he walked up to the General he smiled, "ready to go home?" he asked, Nathan chuckled lightly and nodded happily, as they all walked to the portal, and one by one they vanished into it, until the last one remaining was Nathan, he reached up to the portal. But hesitated and looked back at Twilight who was crying, as well as her friends, he could have sworn he even saw the princess crying, he gave one last smile, before he turned and walked into the portal, and just as he did it vanished, the device along with it.

Twilight and her friends just stood staring at the spot where it was, Celestia felt a tear run down her cheek as she turned to look down at Twilight, and saw her hanging her head and crying, "he's hasn't even been gone a minute, and you already miss him" she said with a chuckle, Twilight chuckled and wiped the tears away, "it's just that…do you think he might come back someday?" she asked looking up at her, Celestia smiled and looked up at the bright blue sky.

"perhaps…maybe someday, Equestria will be in need to a hero like him, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not for quite some time, but all we can do is wait…come along, let's leave this place" she said as they all started walking away, Twilight glanced back on last time, and smiled to herself, before they vanished in a bright flash.

Leaving nothing but the silent whisper of the wind in the trees.

**A/N: well, that's it for now, but fear not, there still one last chapter to go, tune in then, to see the end. Peace.**


	18. Chapter 17

**A/N: well here it is, the final chapter, thank you all for the support, it's been one wild ride, and now we find ourselves at the end of the road, hope you have enjoyed the story, I know I've enjoyed writing it, enjoy the last chapter.**

**Wonders of Science: chapter 17: an end and a beginning**

After walking through the portal, Nathan was blinded by a bright flashing light, he opened his eyes, and much to his surprise and relief, he found himself standing in large container, the other soldiers standing around him, time seemed to slow as he stepped out, a wide smile spread across his face as a single tear slipped down his cheek, as he turned to see Drake and the General smiling at him, as they walked up and lead him out of the room, while all the other scientists applauded their successful mission.

(Secret military installation, infirmary)

After they left the testing lab, they brought Nathan to the infirmary to check on his health, to see if the portal had done anything bad, but he seemed to be okay, but the thing the general was wanting to know, was what affect the unicorn blood had had on him, Nathan sat on the edge of the table as the doctor extracted a small amount of blood and put it under a microscope and observed it, his reaction was surprising.

"Amazing, just amazing" he said looking through the telescope, as Nathan rolled down his sleeve and walked up to him, "what's so amazing?" he asked, the doctor looked away and at him a broad smile on his face, "this 'unicorn' blood in your body is amazing, the amount of poison in your blood, has been eradicated by the cells in that blood, in other words, this blood has healed you faster than anything in the world, and it hasn't affected anything else" he said walking around a table, as Nathan followed him.

"Meaning?" he asked, as the doctor turned to him again, "the blood hasn't affected your DNA yet, and the cells are multiplying, so that eventually it might alter it in some ways, but you're not going to have super strength if that's what you're asking, but we will need to keep a record, this could mean big things" he said, Nathan scoffed, "yeah, next thing you know, I'll be shooting lasers from my eyes, or reading minds" he said putting on his jacket, as they heard laughing from the doorway.

They turned to see Drake standing there, "well, I always knew you were a freak" he said as they walked up, Nathan sighed and looked up at him, "the plane ready?" he asked, putting his hands in his pocket, Drake nodded and smiled, "yep, your family's at your brother's house in San Francisco, Abigail's there with them, the General's waiting for us in the lobby, we should get going" he said as he left the room, Nathan took a deep breath and followed him out.

It was going to be a long journey

(United States, San Francisco, Jake's house)

After they arrived at San Francisco International Airport, they landed on a private military landing strip, and got into a car that took them into the city, now driving through the residential part of town, Nathan felt his heart begin pounding against his chest, as they pulled in front of his brother's house, and stopped.

Nathan took a deep shaky breath as he opened the door and climbed out, and stood in front of the house, he waited for a minute when he saw somebody emerge from the front door, it was his mother, when she looked down at him, he could see the tears forming in her eyes as she ran down the steps, and right at him, and threw her arms around his neck, almost knocking him down by the force, he felt tears come to his eyes as well, he could hear his mother crying into his shoulder, "we thought we lost you" she cried, Nathan put his face into her neck, "you're not going to lose me" he said as he looked up to see his father and brother come running down, and his father joined in the hug, one that he gratefully returned.

When they let go he turned to his brother Jake, and smiled, before extending out his hand, his brother looked at his hand , but instead of shaking it, he threw his arms around his younger brother, Nathan was shocked, but he smiled and hugged him back, happy to finally be home.

After staying like that for a few minutes, he looked up at the doorway, and saw a familiar face, there in the doorway, was his fiancée, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, the second she saw him, her eyes welled up and she immediately started running down the steps, Nathan lightly pushed past his brother, and ran straight at her, they met at the bottom of the stairs, and he threw his arms around her back and lifted her into the air, she did the same and he spun her around, and looked into her eyes, seeing those light brown eyes again, made his eyes tear up.

She lightly brushed her hand on his face, as if making sure he was real, "is this a dream?" she asked sweetly, he smiled at her, and kissed her passionately on the lips, and then they separated, their foreheads touching, "it's not a dream, I'm here" he said in a quiet tone, she smiled at him and kissed him on the lips, something he greatly returned.

For that moment, everything seemed to stand still, that everything was normal again, he was home safe, and he was with his family, his fiancée in his arms, but when they separated, he knew there was still one thing left to do.

(United States, Washington D.C., pentagon)

A week after his return, Nathan, Drake, and the General were called to the Pentagon, for a meeting with the president, where they would discuss Nathan's contract, and about the information they received that the portal had remained open even after they left, and was somehow sustaining itself.

The president had allowed Abigail to come as well, since she and Nathan were due to be married in the following weeks, and since this meeting would discuss Nathan's future, the president saw fit to allow her to come.

As they all sat in the meeting room, in the lower floors of the pentagon, where they were completely safe, the president sat there looking over the reports than Nathan and the other scientists had made over the past few weeks, after a few minutes of looking he sighed and placed the papers on the table, and looked at the General to his right, "tell me General, have your men figured out the cause of this rift?" he asked, the General looked down for a minute, "were not sure how it's self-sustaining, but our scientists have been investigating it" he said, the president sat back in his chair, the members at the table were the president, vice-president, the General, Drake, and members of Nathan's family, since he was the leading scientist, in the whole affair.

"very well General, I'm authorizing your men to study and observe this 'rift' and see what data you come out with" he said the General nodded firmly, "with respect Mr. President, our technology isn't capable of studying this, it may take years before we have any solid data" he said, the president thought about it, "if that's what it takes then do it, just keep me posted about any important discoveries" he said as he looked across the table at Nathan, who was sitting next to his fiancée.

"And Mr. Richards, I understand that you've requested to terminate your contract?" he asked with a questioning look, he looked up at the president, "yes sir, after what's happened, I just want to live a normal life, I've already talked it over with the General" he said, the president sat forward, placing his hands on the table, taking a deep breath, "normally I wouldn't allow this, but in your case, I'll make an exception, your service to this country is inspiring, we will supply you with anything to get you on your feet, but on one condition" he said, which caught all of their interests, Nathan looked at the president's stern face.

"this conversation must never leave this room, all we want in return is your silence, this project must and will remain completely secret, you need to promise, to not leak anything to the public, the press, anybody, and we will supply you with anything you need to start a better life, here's the paper" he said sliding it across the table, Nathan smiled at him and turned to Abigail, who smiled at him and placed her hand on his, Nathan turned back to the president, "thank you, Mr. president, you have no idea what this means to me, I promise not to tell, I give you my word, and if they ever need my help, I'll do what I can" he said signing his name on the contract, and passing it to his fiancée, and then around the table.

The president smiled as they finished negotiating their terms.

(United States, Washington D.C., military airfield)

After leaving the pentagon, they were taken to the closest airfield, and waited for the plane that would take them home, they watched as it pulled up in front of them, Nathan kissed Abigail's forehead, and she walked up the steps and took her seat, while Nathan turned back to the General and smiled, "well, it was a pleasure working for you, good luck" he said shaking his hand, the General smiled back, "good luck yourself, you're a good man Nathan, the world needs more people like you, and so would _they_" he said the last word slowly, Nathan caught his reference and smiled as he turned to board the plane.

He quickly got the seat next to his wife, and across from Drake, they looked out the window, as the door closed and the plane slowly started to take off, Abigail rested her head against Nathan's shoulder, sighing happily, "what do we do now?" she asked, closing her eyes, Nathan looked up at Drake, who smiled back at him, Nathan smiled as well, as he kissed the top of her head, "I'm not sure, we'll just have to wait and see what life throws at us next" he said looking out the window, as the plane slowly turned and flew into the setting sun, back to their home.

**THE END…?**

**A/N: well there you have it, that's the end, I truly hope you've enjoyed this story, it was a new and interesting experience for me, and I want to thank you all for the wonderful feedback, thanks for reading, and peace out.**


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